Danish box liner Maersk Line has become the first international carrier to make a call at Bitung Port in the province of North Sulawesi in the eastern part of Indonesia.
The shipping line made its maiden call at Bitung recently as part of its direct service linking the Bitung Port to the Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Johor, Malaysia.
The Tanjung Pelepas port is mainly a transshipment hub in Southeast Asia from where Indonesian goods can be exported to different parts of the world.
Bitung Port was built to connect the islands of east Indonesia and facilitate the export of local goods, including fish, coconut products, and wood.
The opening of the international shipping route will allow traders from eastern Indonesia to send their products to regional transshipment ports without passing through Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta or Tanjung Perak port in Surabaya, considerably cutting their transport time and logistics costs.
The new shipping route is seen to propel the economic growth of eastern Indonesia, whose development has lagged behind the western part.
The biweekly service of Maersk Line runs on a 32-day rotation with scheduled calls to Tanjung Pelepas, Torres Strait, Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, Port of Noro in the Solomon Islands, Lae in Papua New Guinea, Bitung, and back to Tanjung Pelepas.
Photo: prilfish
