HONG KONG's PT Hutchison Ports Indonesia (HPI), the Indonesian unit of Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), has announced plans to spend US$100 million to expand the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) in Jakarta.

HPI holds 51 per cent share in JICT, while Pelindo II and Koperasi Pegawai Maritim hold shares of 48.9 per cent. JICT operates under a 20-year lease, which expires in 2019.

The expansion project will increase the capacity of JICT to 2.8 million TEU and the neighbouring Koja Terminal to one million TEU.

HPH group engineering chief Mark Jack productivity improvement in Indonesia have far surpassed HPH-operated terminals worldwide. "I'm really impressed. In terms of the number of vessels, I see how quickly they've been handled. I'm really proud of the figures I see in Indonesia," he said.

HPI chief executive Stephen Ashworth said the expansion is part of an agreement reached between both HPI and fellow JICT shareholder PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) II back in 1999.

The investment will also include the construction of a new entry gate complex to monitor trucks coming in and out of JICT, reported London's Port Technology International.

"We want to make it a joint facility with the Koja Container Terminal. So the trucks will come either from JICT or Koja," said Mr Ashworth in a press briefing. "We try to make it as a collaboration, so they can be more efficient."

JICT handled 2.3 million TEU during the 2011 calendar year, compared to the 1.5 million TEU handled six years before. The Koja Terminal handled 800,000 TEU in 2011, despite being designed to handle just 650,000 TEU.