Indonesia opens first direct shipping route to China

The authorities of Indonesia's Batam Island officially started on Sunday the operation of direct shipment from Batuampar Port to China's Guangzhou and Shenzhen to boost bilateral trade.

The direct shipping service was initiated by Persero Batam and the Batam Concession Agency in collaboration with SITC International Holdings, a shipping logistics company based in Hong Kong.

Director of Persero Batam, Arham S. Torik, said at the inaugural voyage in Batam city that the voyage used the MV SITC Hakata with a capacity of 1,000 TEUs. The direct service would routinely sail every Sunday, four trips in a month.

Torik said that there were already five export companies that would join the direct route, and expressed his hope that there would be more companies to join.

The direct route can reduce the transportation cost by up to $600 compared to transiting in Singapore, he said.

Head of the BP Batam Muhammad Rudi highly valued the operation of the Batam-China direct route, saying he hopes that in the future all companies in Batam can take advantage of this direct shipping to China.

Batam is expected to become a good place to ship goods and targets a capacity of 2 million TEUs per year, he added