SHIPS at the Makassar Container Terminal at the southern tip of the Indonesian middle island of Sulawesi must suffer five- to seven day dwell times before loading and unloading, reports the Jakarta Post
SHIPS at the Makassar Container Terminal at the southern tip of the Indonesian middle island of Sulawesi must suffer five- to seven day dwell times before loading and unloading, reports the Jakarta Post. Makassar Port Authority head Harno Trimadi said the terminal is beyond its capacity, as it was left to deal with 670,000 TEU even though it was only built to handle 600,000 TEU.
'There are dozens of ships that have to wait. This has been ongoing for weeks. The conditions were normal when Transportation Minister [Budi Karya Sumata] visited recently,' Mr Harno said as reported by kontan.co.id.
Mr Harno said the situation was worsened by the terminal's shortage of rubber tyred gantry cranes because some of them were moved to Makassar New Port in November.
The chairman of the Indonesian National Shipowners Association's (INSA) Makassar chapter, Zulkifli Syahril, said the long waits at Makassar Container Terminal had been going on for two months.
Mr Zulkifli expressed hope that the port authority could soon find a solution, as the dwell time had resulted in swelling costs for ship owners. 'The more time the loading and unloading activities take, the more we spend on logistics costs,' he said.
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