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MAERSK
Line Indonesia is maintaining an optimistic
outlook on the Southeast Asian nation's
economy despite its current trade deficit
hitting US$3.31 billion in June, says the
company's trade report.
"It's
early days yet, but we believe the shipping
industry will continue to remain robust,"
said president director of Maersk Line Indonesia
Jakob Friis Sorensen.
"In
spite of the trade deficit which is results
from lower value commodities exports, volumes
remain very healthy, particularly on Maersk
Line's key trade corridors from Indonesia
to the US, Europe and Africa," he said.
Although
the weak Indonesian rupiah continues to
squeeze imports and inflationary pressure
will likely reduce the import of consumables,
it spells good news for Indonesian exports.
"It is anticipated that non-oil and
gas exports from Indonesia to other ASEAN
nations will reach $15.4 billion this year
almost the same as in 2012."
According
to Mr Sorensen, the company's export volumes
of palm oil have increased over the past
two years, with a year-on-year increase
of 41 per cent, particularly to markets
in east and west Africa as well as Sri Lanka.
Export
volumes of paper products have accelerated
over the last three years, with Indonesia
becoming one of the largest paper producers
in the world. In the first six months of
the year, exports of paper products handled
by Maersk Line increased year-on-year by
three per cent, said the report.
Other
areas to watch are the bottlenecks the shipping
industry has been seeing in the trucking
sector, which Maersk said are causing unnecessary
delays to the unloading of containers at
portside.
The
trade report stated there is a growing need
to increase the port capacity in Indonesia
to cope with the aggressive growth in containerised
volumes in recent years.
"Areas
that need to be addressed include the lack
of equipment, low port efficiency, congestion,
poor road access to ports, and slow container
clearance," said the report.
However,
it noted that efforts at developing new
ports and addressing other structural issues
are clearly steps in the right direction
to improve Indonesia's competitiveness as
a trading nation.
The
report added that overall the intra-Asia
shipping market continues to remain promising
given that the average growth rate of the
intra-Asia containerised trade segment has
been higher than the traditional long-haul
routes over the past few years, although
growth has been slower this year.
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