[090119.EN.SEA] Box Ships Stranded For Days at Indonesian Terminal That Lack Capacity to Cope

CONTAINERSHIPS have been stuck for up to seven days waiting to berth at the Makassar container terminal in south Sulawesi, Indonesia, where the terminal is operating beyond its design capacity of 600,000 TEU with 670,000 TEU struggling to be loaded and unloaded.

"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," Makassar port authority head Harno Trimadi said in a report by kontan.co.id.

The minister said the situation has worsened since some of the terminal's rubber-tyred gantry cranes were moved to Makassar new port on November 2, reported The Jakarta Post.

Indonesian National Shipowners Association's (INSA) Makassar chapter chairman Zulkifli Syahril said the long waits at Makassar container terminal had been ongoing for two months.

He noted: "The more time the loading and unloading activities take, the more we spend on logistics costs."

Source : HKSG / Photo : Pelindo 4.