Indonesia's Surabaya new sea port facilitates maiden direct cargo transport from China

Indonesia's newly- inaugurated seaport of Teluk Lamong in East Java capital city of Surabaya facilitated on Thursday the maiden direct transport of cargo from China, which is highly expected to boost bilateral trade activities between China and Indonesia.

The direct cargo transport departed from China's city of Lianyungang was shipped by a container vessel operated by China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL), skipped ports in Singapore and Malaysia to reach Surabaya.

Teluk Lamong President Director Prasetyadi said that operation of the new seaport would significantly reduce logistic cost, paving the way for more trade between Indonesia and China.

Prasetyadi said that Teluk Lamong is highly capable to facilitate very large cargo vessels as its international terminal has 14 meters of draught that fit to receive that kind of ship.

"Should large vessels that can carry large number of containers can be well-served, the logistic cost can be reduced," Prasetyadi said in his remarks to welcome the initial direct cargo transport in his office here.

He added that in the initial period, the seaport will serve direct cargo shipping from China once a week.

China has been the biggest bilateral trade to Indonesia with 14. 71 billion U.S dollars of two-way trade registered in the first half this year.

Meanwhile, CSCL Southeast Asia Regional Holding Vice President Shen Yiping said in his remarks at the event that the operation of the seaport would boost export and import activities, accelerate economic growth of East Java and Indonesia's eastern region as well.

"It is of no doubt that the seaport can be a primary gate for international trade from eastern part of Indonesia and will greatly enhance the efficiency of logistics services in Eastern Indonesia, reduce logistic costs and promote local economic development," he said.

CSCL Panama that shipped the direct maiden transport from China to Surabaya unloaded 449 cargoes in Teluk Lamong seaport.

Teluk Lamong was inaugurated by President Joko Widodo in May this year, designated as an environmental-friendly modern seaport.

The seaport was part of four new seaports across the nation built to cope with more vibrant trade in the future.

In its initial period, Teluk Lamong operates five cranes to load and unload cargoes from and to the container vessels serving domestic and International shipping.

The seaport was expected to operate 10 cranes next month.

By 2030 the seaport was expected to have full operation with an operation area of 380 hectares from 38 hectares at present. The modern seaport was expected to have a capacity of 1.5 mullion TEUs per year at that time. Endi