MAERSK Line Indonesia is maintaining an optimistic outlook on the Southeast Asian nation's economy despite its current trade deficit hitting US$3.31 billion in June, says the company's trade report.
"It's early days yet, but we believe the shipping industry will continue to remain robust," said president director of Maersk Line Indonesia Jakob Friis Sorensen.
"In spite of the trade deficit which results from lower value commodities exports, volumes remain healthy, particularly on Maersk Line's key trade corridors from Indonesia to the US, Europe and Africa."
Although the weak Indonesian rupiah continues to squeeze imports and inflationary pressure will likely reduce the import of consumables, it spells good news for Indonesian exports. "It is anticipated that non-oil and gas exports from Indonesia to other ASEAN nations will reach $15.4 billion this year almost the same as in 2012."
According to Mr Sorensen the company's export volumes of palm oil have increased over the past two years, with a year-on-year increase of 41 per cent, particularly to markets in east and west Africa as well as Sri Lanka.
Export volumes of paper products have accelerated over the last three years, with Indonesia becoming one of the largest paper producers in the world. In the first six months of the year, exports of paper products handled by Maersk Line increased year on year by three per cent, said the report.
Other areas to watch are the bottlenecks the shipping industry has been seeing in the trucking sector, which Maersk said are causing unnecessary delays to the unloading of containers portside.
The trade report stated there is a growing need to increase the port capacity in Indonesia to cope with the aggressive growth in containerised volumes in recent years.
"Areas that need to be addressed include the lack of equipment, low port efficiency, congestion, poor road access to ports, and slow container clearance," said the report.
However, it noted that efforts at developing new ports and addressing other structural issues are clearly steps in the right direction to improve Indonesia's competitiveness as a trading nation.
The report added that overall the intra-Asia shipping market continues to remain promising given that the average growth rate of the intra-Asia containerised trade segment has been higher than the traditional long-haul routes over the past few years, although growth has been slower this year.
WORLD SHIPPING
29 August 2013 - 21:09
Indonesian exports will stay robust, despite economic woes: Maersk report
MAERSK Line Indonesia is maintaining an optimistic outlook on the Southeast Asian nation's economy despite its current trade deficit hitting US$3.31 billion in June, says the company's trade report.
WORLD SHIPPING
29 August 2013 - 21:09
Indonesian exports will stay robust, despite economic woes: Maersk report
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