Indonesia’s Patimban International Port, which will become the country’s largest such facility, started operations with the export of 140 vehicles to Brunei. The port, considered a national strategic project, will have capacity for 7.5 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) of containers when it is completed in 2027, according to a cabinet secretariat statement. The car terminal can hold 218,000 assembled vehicles and will be expanded to 600,000 capacity by 2024 to boost the country’s automotive exports.
The 43.2 trillion rupiah (US$3.07 billion) port in the town of Subang, 140 km east of the capital Jakarta, is one of the government’s priority infrastructure projects, designed to boost Southeast Asia’s largest economy and relieve pressure on Jakarta’s congested Tanjung Priok port.
Built with funding from the Japanese government, the port is expected to boost Indonesia’s economic recovery, after the Southeast Asian nation entered a recession for the first time in 22 years in the third quarter. The government has targeted the port to boost the competitiveness of Indonesia’s exports, particularly in the automotive sector. Expected to be finished in entirety by 2027, the port is also expected to generate up to five million jobs in West Java.
(source: Bloomberg/The Jakarta Post)