This article has been translated by PwC Indonesia as part of our Indonesia Infrastructure News Service. PwC Indonesia has not checked the accuracy of, and accepts no responsibility for the content.
Bisnis Indonesia - Kinerja pelabuhan: Membawa Pelindo Multi Terminal go digital
19 February 2024
By Hendra Wibawa
At the end of last year on Thursday (28/12), the Board of Directors of PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Persero) and Perum Bulog met in Jakarta.
The meeting commenced with a brief discussion on national food security. Eventually, an agreement was reached for both state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to establish strategic cooperation.
Soon after, the leaders of both SOEs agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) titled “Loading and Unloading Services for Imported Food Commodities and Loading and Unloading Movement Activities”.
The MoU was signed by Pelindo President Director Arif Suhartono and Perum Bulog President Director Bayu Krisnamurthi. The scope of the strategic cooperation covers the implementation of port services in Pelindo’s work areas, inclusive of the utilisation of port facilities to support ship docking.
Additionally, the agreement pertains to the unloading of imported ship cargo, a task delegated to the freight forwarding service company appointed by Perum Bulog.
After signing the MoU, Arif stated that he hoped for the synergy of both SOEs to benefit the population.
“It is the start of a collaboration between Pelindo and Bulog, poised to significantly contribute to bolstering national food security and ultimately benefiting the population.,” he said.
Not long after the signing of the MoU, Pelindo, through its subholding PT Pelindo Multi Terminal (SPMT), realised the cooperation. SPMT will be tasked with managing the stevedoring of Perum Bulog's cargo across Indonesia, encompassing imported rice with a quota of 2 million tonnes for 2024.
SPMT Operations Director Arif Rusman Yulianto said that SPMT has handled the stevedoring of Bulog’s rice at several ports, such as Tanjung Emas, Tanjung Wangi, Balikpapan, Lhokseumawe, Malahayati, Makassar, Belawan, Dumai, and Jamrud.
Besides that, SPMT will also handle the stevedoring of Bulog’s rice at Tanjung Priok Port and Kijing Port through its subsidiary, PT Pelabuhan Tanjung Priok.
“We started in Surabaya yesterday. Then, also in Jakarta, Makassar, Semarang, and in Kijing [Port] in Pontianak. We will carry out stevedoring for Bulog’s cargo,” he said at a media gathering in Surabaya recently.
To facilitate a seamless stevedoring process, Arif Rusman revealed that SPMT has coordinated with Perum Bulog to ensure the cargo allocation at each port.
It is important to determine which ship can enter a port to expedite SPMT’s stevedoring process.
Furthermore, Bulog will also align the operating hours of its warehouses. While Bulog's warehouses adhere to specific operating hours, stevedoring activities at ports operate around the clock, 24/7. This adjustment also extends to the scheduling of trucks responsible for transporting rice from ports to Perum Bulog's warehouses.
“We will engage in joint planning. Later, an SLA (service level agreement) will be established to address the issues we have mentioned,” Arif Rusman said.
The adjustment is important for SPMT to optimise its port performance. With the adjustment, SPMT can directly contribute to the reduction of logistics costs in Indonesia.
One of the main challenges in reducing logistics costs in Indonesia is suboptimal port performance.
According to him, ports are one of the main nodes that facilitate the supply chain. Issues at ports will affect the supply chain.
Hence, Arif Rusman is committed to improving the service quality for port users.
SPMT’s strategy to reduce port and cargo stay times has notably contributed to the decrease in the cost of port services.
SPMT's role is to minimise the time interval between the arrival of ships at docks and their departure after stevedoring.
A shorter time interval can be achieved with a standardised service at every port.
Following that, SPMT will give priority to optimising the commercial aspects of each port. This includes focusing on service quality, revenue sharing, and ensuring a competitive service tariff.
Increasingly digital
Besides that, SPMT is also implementing systemisation and integration through the Pelindo Terminal Operation System-Multipurpose (PTOS-M) application.
Systemising services at ports facilitates SPMT’s management and customers in their operations.
A shorter time interval will increase cruise time as the fleet no longer has to dock for a long time at ports to carry out stevedoring. An increase in cruise time will also reduce the operating costs of the shipping company.
“All of these efforts are expected to lower logistics costs by the unit,” he explained.
In terms of ports, Arif Rusman guarantees that port performance will be more optimal after the merger of Pelindo conducted 2 years ago.
Throughout 2023, SPMT’s performance was quite brilliant with dry bulk cargo traffic increasing by 5.9% year-on-year (YoY) to 55.13 million tonnes.
A notable improvement was also observed in the performance of liquid bulk cargo, which includes palm oil and other chemicals, with a substantial 8.9% increase to 30.37 million tonnes in 2023. Additionally, the vehicle traffic serviced by SPMT reached 1.55 million units, reflecting an 8.4% increase from 2022. Similarly, gas cargo also witnessed significant growth, surging by 49.8% from 2022 to 13,189 million BBTUs.
SPMT’s general and bag cargo traffic also grew 9.8% in 2023 to 25.28 million tonnes per m3. Meanwhile, container traffic also grew 1.1% to 429,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
Meanwhile, a maritime expert from ITS in Surabaya, Saut Gurning, sees that the service systemisation conducted by SPMT through PTOS-M can suppress logistics costs.
Saut mentioned that the primary area of cost reduction occurred within the port service cost component.
Moreover, PTOS-M is also integrated with other Pelindo platforms, such as Phinnisi that is utilised for stevedoring activities at docks. However, Saut reckoned that SPMT still has room to improve its performance, especially at its non-container terminals, through enhancing shipping connectivity.
“SPMT can also improve hinterland connectivity that is traditionally synergistic with existing port services,” Saut said.
By enhancing connectivity on both ends, ports under SPMT can improve the cost components associated with hinterlands, which have historically been a concern for cargo owners.
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