Marine News Asia

At a time when the world’s liner industry is limping Malaysia seems to have hit all the right notes!

In a  recent call the nation’s mercurial former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad urged his compatriots to overhaul the nation’s tax structure such that it  is custom made to promote the nation’s offshore support vessels (OSVs) and by extension, the nation’s shipping industry.

Of late Malaysia has been sliding behind neighbours such as Singapore in the development of its offshore support sector. The central plank of the former premier’s message was that an overhaul of tax legislation was crucial in encouraging Malaysians to operate OSVs in the country.

“Singapore is currently seen as a more industry-friendly country”, the former premier told without mincing any words to the monetary incentives that could potentially form the catalyst for overhauling the offshore vessel sector in Malaysia.

“In the end, the government will gain because when these companies gain profit, they would have to pay corporate tax”, he stressed.

EOSV Malaysia president Tasripin Masotee weighed in echoing the former premier saying the OSV industry needed a holistic approach from the government by providing a fair level playing field and tools so that the industry can become competitive and market-driven.

Malaysia’s reserves of oil and gas – modest by most standards – have been singled as a growth dynamo for the country. For decades since the implementation of cabotage in the 1970s, the nation’s tax regime has remained moribund with little or no incentive to support its OSV sector. 

Singapore’s fiscal incentives have been a special attraction forMalaysiaadded Masotee, declaring OSVs registered in the country and income derived from the operating or chartering of such ships in international waters always enjoy tax exemptions.

In a meeting held recently byLondon’s Nautical Institute, industry experts warned of the dangers resulting from complacency in interpreting the Electronic Charts Display and Information Systems (ECDIS) guidelines.

Though the 2010 amendments to the STCW guidelines will not kick in till 2017, it has been widely recommended that best practices regarding ECDIS training be undertaken at the earliest possible opportunity. That is to ensure that all bridge watch keeping officers meet all the competencies required by STCW prior to sailing on a ship fitted with ECDIS gadgets.

The convened meeting had recommended that ship operators recognise the critical importance of ECDIS for navigational safety and ensure that crew competency is achieved and maintained. ECDIS trainers take into account and ensure that their courses deliver at least the competencies for navigators which have been identified by the IMO.

Equipment manufacturers are urged to recognise their role in the familiarisation process and to work with ship operators to meet their needs.  Flag states urged to take cognisance of the requirements when developing requirements and guidance for ECDIS and finally for port states and other inspection/auditing authorities are encouraged to provide appropriate ECDIS training to their staff.

The Nautical Institute further noted that familiarisation pertained to any ECDIS onboard including any backup systems. And this requires any pertinent information required for the safe operation of the ECDIS including all updates and alterations.

Of particular importance was the focus that was required for achieving and demonstrating the necessary competencies rather than time spent on training and achieving certification alone.

Having the world’s largest archipelago of some 17,000 islands or more, is hardly the solace Indonesia needs! At any rate just what good has it done for Indonesia, just like what good living in 12 time zones been for the people in Russia?

For one, a vast archipelago makes communications immensely difficult for the vast majority of its people. And that Indonesia was finally able to enact cabotage should not be wrongly viewed as a triumph of nationalism over mercantilism. Ofen than not mercantilism and nationalism can turn into a heady, brew separating and confusing one for the other!

Instead as how Marine News Asia (MNA) learnt most of the vessels serving the country are so very decrepit and rickety that marine insurers turn up their noses at vessel owners when they come around for insurance premiums, literally in a begging bowl. 

“Most insurers dare not insure vessels”, declared Budhi Halim, advisor to the Indonesian Ship Owners Association (INSA) who told of sunken vessels lying buried in the nation’s watery graves and  for which most salvage companies are reluctant to dredge up. 

Most ofIndonesia’s tonnage is usually ‘second-rate’ hand-me-downs from Malaysia, Koreaand other nations. That naturally means they come with considerable navigational defects and structural faults that to train Abs to any respectable standards is hard as the hardscrabble lives faced by many toiling away endlessly in the poverty-racked nation. 

That is not all. Even simulation exercises suffer for nothing can ever be done in the comprehensive scale or scope the IMO stipulates as mandatory. 

If ever there is an adjective to describe the hapless state of affairs in the country, what would be appropriate is ‘foreboding’.  

Jakarta, on record has some close to 7,000 vessels of various types. That they do not measure up, is now an open secret. But just actually how the nation’s classification body the Bureau Klasifikasi Indonesia is certifying vessels concerns is a deep seated concern.

Indonesia does indeed have grandiose plans to inaugurate a major ship building drive. And it does not suffer from any shortage of raw materials or labour. 

But what it lacks critically is expertise, something that it obviously needs to import.

Having the world’s largest archipelago of some 17,000 islands or more, is hardly the solaceIndonesianeeds! A any rate just what good has it done for Indonesia, just like Russia maybe asking what good has living in 12 time zones been for peoples’

For one, a vast archipelago makes communications immensely difficult for the vast majority of its people. And thatIndonesiawas finally able to enact cabotage should not be wrongly viewed as a triumph of nationalism over mercantilism.

Instead as how Marine News Asia (MNA) learnt most of the vessels serving the country are so very decrepit and rickety that marine insurers turn up their noses at vessel owners when they come around for insurance premiums, literally in a begging bowl.

“Most insurers dare not insure vessels”, declared Budhi Halim, advisor to the Indonesian Ship Owners Association (INSA) who told of sunken vessels lying buried in the nation’s watery graves and which most salvage companies are reluctant to dredge up.

Most ofIndonesia’s tonnage is usually ‘second-rate’ hand-me-downs fromMalaysia,Koreaand other nations. That naturally means they come with considerable navigational defects and structural faults that to train Abs to any respectable standards is hard as the hardscrabble lives faced by many toiling away endlessly in the poverty-racked nation.

That is not all. Even simulation exercises suffer for nothing can ever be done in the comprehensive scale or scope that the IMO makes as mandatory.

If ever there is an adjective to describe the hapless state of affairs in the country, what would be appropriate is ‘foreboding’. 

Jakarta, on record has some close to 7,000 vessels of various types. That they do not measure up, is now an open secret. But just actually how the nation’s classification body the Bureau Klasifikasi Indonesia is certifying vessels is worthy of not just domestic, but also of the international community.

Indonesiadoes indeed have grandiose plans to inaugurate a major ship building drive. It does not suffer from any shortage of raw materials or labour.

But what it lacks critically is expertise, something that it obviously needs to import.

In a move that is the least unexpected of all, Indonesia will go all out to develop its port and energy sectors.

Jakarta has yet to draw up a Vietnamese-style port Master plan. But before any such decision comes afoot, here are some disturbing facts. The country badly needs to rectify its logistics and clear away bottlenecks that are now forcing it to languish at the lower rungs of the world’s Logistics Performance Index. To put it like it is: That is simply bad news.

 No nation  wanting to be taken seriously can ever attain international recognition or respectability in its national competitiveness if it fails the test set by the barometer of measure, which the Logistics Performance Index is all about! 

Though Jakarta lately has showed some spunk passing a much needed ports law native expertise is just not there –  at least yet. It was that in mind that many Chinese companies have begun lining up to spruce up Indonesian ports just like how they have been busy with similar undertakings in parts of Africa and the rest of the world most noticeably of which, is in Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port. 

But the Chinese cannot and should not beam with much self-congratulatory success! The romance with Jakarta is such that everybody is out to court her with sops and investment talismans. Reports now say that some US$357billion have been pledged until 2014 for its ports and energy sectors.  

“The energy sector and port developments have drawn most investors’ interests. Those projects are mainly based in Java andSumatra,” Abdul Kamarzuki, the head of the planning division at the Indonesian Economic Development Committee was reported as saying.

 Press reports say thatBeijingis pledging some US$19billion in investment credit toJakarta. But what has largely gone unreported is ifBeijingwill extract the same kind of concessions it has been wont to do whenever it builds ports in other nations.

 Piracy: Aren’t satellites working? 

When will it all, end? 

Rather appropriately when would satellites now in orbit known otherwise as by its colloquial term of eyes-in-the-skies ever be used to track down pirate movements and their money transfers? 

Most of the piracy happening as they now in theGulf of Adencan be ascribed to a host of factors. From the fragmented state of the Somali nation, to the ceaseless level of interregnum to warlords running havoc,Somaliain all conscience is but a failed state in all but name.

The system of monetary transactions used in Somaliasubscribes to what is called the Islamic form of financial fund movement known as hawla. Loosely translated it means a system of fund transfers eliminating the need for modern-day financial institutions inserting in lieu of its place faceless money brokers etc. Most of these money brokers perform their tasks based on a system on honour and trust thus ensuring firmly no money and paper trail is ever present in such a system. 

In a sense it explains the underlying frustration sleuths and interlopers face when trying to uncover the ransom payouts because there is no money trail to speak of! 

That brings to question as to what really are the lumbering satellites deployed by Western nations doing in the fight against piracy. 

Since the mid-2000s whenMalaysiadeployed the E2C Hawkeye planes piracy in the Malacca Straits took a hit. But that was not long before nations forming the outer crest of the strategic waterway were able to cobble together a cooperative pact of information exchanges to combat the maritime menace.

Only if the hovering satellites in the sky could do just the same, the world could rest assured to who is receiving the ransom loot. 

Until and when such a thing happens, piracy as we know it will be with us as long as the hawla system remains intact.

It will be some time yet before Malaysia finally inaugurates a commission (or regulatorybody) to oversee the nation’s port operations. 

Existing statutes, conventions and differing customary practices to a narrow degree are supposedly ‘harming’ any such eventual inauguration, according to a well-placed source in one of the nation’s key terminal operator in Port Klang. 

“The matter is with the Attorney General” the source added, “and they need to consider all these variables” he declared matter-of-factly. 

The issue of port commission has been consumingMalaysiafor years, according to sources who continue to complain about the administration of cabotage rules and regulations to yet other instances of THC charges and berthing and wharf extensions etc.

Concerns do not just end there. 

The issue became particularly acute in the wake of the Port Klang debacle a few years ago when massive cost overruns and resource misallocation culminated in the apprehension of key port officials. 

But Port Klang is just another ‘distraction’ as some shipping officials are inclined to dismiss.

 The larger issue is the wealth of cape size vessels cruising into Malaysian ports and along with it, the many trade and free trade agreements nations that Malaysia, continue to forge at a frenetic pace. For every pact Malaysia inks it can expect a corresponding rise in trade volumes by the extent of tariffs and quotas being slashed. 

And when the economic development programmes the Malaysian government constantly rolls out to uplift its peoples’ living standards are taken into consideration; a port commission – within the subtext of those priorities – becomes that much of an overriding national goal. 

The logic behind it is simple. Only an institutionalised body with transparent and unquestionable laws can guarantee the seamless movement of goods along with, some would say the policing of enforcement laws. 

The history of port development inMalaysiais but a function of its functionality! 

It has to match the needs, cargo, hinterland facilities and such ancillaries like roads and rail networks for any such infrastructure developments to emerge. It is just for that reason Bintulu in East Malaysia has a different regime of administration with say

Rajang in West Malaysia or Penang Port etc! 

Apart from Malaysia,Vietnam,Cambodia and probably Indonesia too in the near future will need to decide how many and what kind of ports they would need. Most are opting for private-public arrangements as a means to save them from high operating costs by engaging huge shipping companies to run their operations. Maersk is doing it in PTP and in Indonesia. 

Yet nothing in this new era of environmental consciousness is a given than of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) audit regimes, which are but the only sure-fire way of ensuring that the environment and ecosystems do not get unduly disrupted and a balance between development and preservation is thus observed. 

There is no such body in Malaysia to currently ensure that and if it does, it does get short shrift. Only a port commission with sweeping powers will and can possibly do that. 

That Malaysia is a parliamentary democracy quite unlike Vietnam or China is instructive. It does not have the ‘luxury’ of simply enacting a port MasterPlan against the popular will of its people and only later to find that some of the ports that were built may not have any use after all, like how it was in another South East Asian nation.  

So Malaysia just needed to bow to the will of its people. It was just for this reason the nation enacted its first ever commission that in latter years came to called as the Penang Port Commission Act in 1955.

 That was soon to follow with other similar moves like Bintulu Port and under the Bintulu Port Authority Act 1981. And underMalaysia’s Port Privatisation Act 1990 as announced over Maritime Institute of Malaysia (MIMA), the operations of the Federal ports were either corporatised or privatised to private operators with the Port Authorities assuming a new role as the Regulatory Body of the private port operators.

Yet none of these enactments tell the real story.Malaysia also has state and minor ports and jetties – all of which are governed separately under wholly different statutes and parliamentary acts. It therefore is a ‘cocktail’ of port functions; distilled to turn and give a heady and intoxicating brew! 

Port developments and their policing bodies had to be carefully and delicately crafted so as to ensure that not just the environment but that the original purpose of building a port – which is to ensure cargo throughput – is attained such that it does not turn into a white elephant like how Muara in Brunei has since become.

And with Malaysiaf acing competition from Myanmar’s Dawei, to Sri Lanka’s Hambantota to erstwhile rival Singapore, there is little to suggest that drawing up a commission can be plain sailing as some would suggest it. 

But whatever the hurdles it is, as they would say, it is always better to be late than never!

How PSA does it 

Have setting records been given a new meaning, a new definition or a new threshold to begin with? 

Just looking at what PSA International accomplished over its 2011 throughput figures, one might just be tempted to conclude just does PSA always keep pulling away from the pack? Why do they keep everybody dawdling behind, by powering full steam ahead? 

Nobody in the least will be reproved if they say that building deep sea ports has suddenly become the last craze in Asia. From the eastern Chinese seaboard to the vast expanse of the Indonesian archipelago to the unobtrusive erecting of a new multi-billion seaport in Myanmar’s Dawei (pronounced as Tavoy) province, nations all over Asia are – at least that is what it seems – attempting a ‘PSA double”.

Can they succeed? The jury is out, as it should be and has to be!

 Not since the city-state’s founding in 1819 and the serendipitous move to tap on the deep draughts on the major East/West trade routes has there been anything of the dividends seen in the last couple of years. 

Even as it braved the economic headwinds triggered by the Eurozone debt crisis and the ‘filtering’ slack of the comatose US economy, these were, but a middling ‘distraction’ PSA would have figured. The PSA Group consisting of PSA Singapore Terminals and PSA International Pte Ltd, pulled in a staggering 57.09million teus! The figures are even before the 16 berths in the city-state’s southern fringes of Pasir Panjang had even been completed. Yet what is jaw-dropping is that those figures do not say the whole story, like it is. The cumulative total PSA says, masks figures from its port assets in Hong Kong sold to Singapore-listed Hutchison Port Holdings Trust in March 2011. If those figures were included the volume would have rose to an unassailable output of 59.3million teus. 

Last year’s performance of a 5.6% increase was also remarkable other than the message the laggards in Europe told. In message cadences that strained from the sobering to the introspective, PSA Group CEO, Tan Chong Meng spoke of the challenges the Group faced to the promise waiting in store.

“As we enter 2012, the outlook for the year remains uncertain as countries struggle with the projected slowdown in growth and the potential impact on national economies. The PSA Group came through the difficult business year well”. 

“Well”, could well have been an understatement. A better noun would have been ‘magnificently’. 

PSA operates in 28 port projects in 16 countries across the world. That is hardly surprising because it offers some the best services, this region has ever known. 

But there is no denying that regional competition can be unsettling. 

Indonesia, which until recently was dismissed more of a curious mix of banter and disorienting grog, is suddenly turning into the poster boy of the modern era. The upgrades by Fitch and Moody’s have served Jakarta well indeed. 

And the latest revelation is that the only South East Asian nation to become a member of the G-20 has yet another feather to its cap: It crossed the psychologically soul-stirring US1trillion threshold in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). 

Yet there is little to worry about so long as PSA cares. Port businesses are not just about having wharves, warehouses, RTGs, spreader cranes and forklifts etc. They mean more than just these mere variables. 

They include an entire caboodle of finance, arbitration facilities and expertise, draft facilities, favouable hydrography etc. To Singapore’s good fortune she has all of those. The rest of her competitors have little or none of it.

 There is another factor that Singapore has. It is also the world’s biggest port along with having the largest ship registry in the world thus making her the best port of call if one is a ship owner and thinking of whether to pick Shanghai, Hong Kong or Singapore. 

 Perhaps the only reason to why Shanghai was able to pip Singapore last year was for nothing more than it being what The Economist called as being the “through port’. In other words all it does is that it accepts the raw materials coming from the rest of world for them to be assembled and to be manufactured in the hardware it was meant for. 

Singapore’s business model arising out of its good fortune of being positioned strategically does give it an edge, so to speak. Coupled with the fact is its very robust maritime cluster industry.

There is just not a nation – except for Hong Kong perhaps – that has what the Republic has.

The real competition for port supremacy, n other words, in Asia has hardly ever begun.

So when 2012 ends either today or on 31^st December there is just no need to mope around who will once again be at the top!

Transhipment port again shows that where it matters, it can make a difference.

At a time when ‘sluggishness’ is rapidly becoming an operating word in ports across the world, Malaysia’s leading transshipment port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) may just be eager to tell everyone it is in another ‘universe’.

The self-effacing port based in the southern Malaysian state of Johor handled a staggering 7.5million teus in 2011. The figures all in represent a 15% spike over 2010 numbers. In terms of global growth average data – PTP outclassed ports across the world by a whopping 7% growth in figures!

All of the increases did not exist in a vacuum. Growth was driven by strong organic growth theport said, and it attributed strong organic growth from existing customers and volume from new customers.  Container volume from PTP’s main existing customers, Maersk Line and Evergreen, increased by 16% over the previous year.  The port has also seen new shipping lines during the year, including Hanjin and STX Pan Ocean of Korea, Mitsui and K-Line ofJapanand China Shipping.

True to the spirit of the occasion the port could not able to conceal its glee. Its’ CEO Azlan Shahrim knew who he should be thanking, adding in the post throughput celebration, “We were also fortunate that some new shipping lines have decided to call PTP”

From just two shipping lines in its early days PTP now has 26 shipping lines and box operators working out from its port. Those numbers have invariably raised connectivity and frequency and enabled the port to provide shippers with better access to the global market. 

PTP is also one of seven ports worldwide chosen by Maersk Line for its new “Daily Maersk” service, a daily service between the Far East and North Europe involving 70 vessels operating between four mega ports in Asia and three ports inEurope. 

PTP is a joint venture between MMC Corporation (70%), a utilities and infrastructure group and APM Terminals (30%), a leading global ports group with a global port network in 63 countries.

Just what a way to begin 2012? 

The world has hardly stopped bleeding from the Eurozone debt crisis. Freight rates continue to be in doldrums – stuck as otherwise in a never ending slide to the bottom. Then there is the Persian Gulf. Would Iran relent? The guess is, hardly. That means 2012 will mean more than of ‘melodrama’ that until recently was lionised by Somali pirates.  

To begin with, 2011 was unsettling to speak of. It certainly did not deserve that 2012 begin the way it did, with the tragedy in the southern Italian city of Tuscany seizing the high ground of the moral debate on the loss of innocent lives. 

But as can be expected it always takes a tragedy to cast anew old paradigms, re-ignite hope and perhaps one day, hopefully to reinvent the way we do business as has been done.

Something must just be out of the ordinary if risk taking is not ‘controlled’. Just what is risk management and its assumption is often a judgement call. Skippers have generally done that – either facing off pirates or maybe seemingly in less dangerous situations. 

But between the heat of some excitement in taking in the sights of an exotic land and what navigational charts forbid, making a decision in the face of ‘temptations’ can be excruciatingly hard because human nature does not allow for a rational mind to seek a rational decision when one is emotionally affected! That was just the problem with the master of Costa Concordia. His alleged wanderlust to get close as he could to the Italian coast is the stuff of legends marking out his name in the headstones of watery graves of the Tuscany coast where some 11 or more bodies now lie entombed. 

It is a tricky case study, therefore.

 It brings into focus the issue of arresting the character ‘deficit’ question of choosing skippers. Is there a maritime academy in the world that is trained for that, or which can pull that off? 

If one were to look back at history at how the Americans picked astronauts for their first ever moon landing in 1969 without having the slightest clue if the men they selected were indeed the right ones for an historic mission – a few lessons in character assessment would indeed throw up instructive insights! 

Yet nothing belies the tragedy than what crass stupidity actually tells. A skipper’s sudden decision to catch a glimpse of the Italian coastline and wave at his relatives gawking at his passing ship is just the stuff of mishaps and disasters. If that was déjà vu it was not eerily off tangent. The 1912 disaster involving the Titanic when an equally bull headed master thought icebergs were of no match for a supposedly unsinkable craft, caused just that much havoc.

It is always a given that passengers need to practise in a lifeboat drill within 24 hours after boarding a vessel. That was not to be for all passengers. Perhaps the time has come to have all passengers practise their drills on shore before boarding the vessel. 

Another is the probability of seeking technology’s help to sort out the confusion of crew and passenger accountability each time a disaster such as this happens, as a possible fallout measure. 

Then there is restitution. P&I clubs will be slammed with staggering claims and according to a shipping source MNA spoke to, “claims amounting to more $6,000,000 will have to be borne globally by all P&I clubs”. 

However, as the world comes to grips with the disaster the proverbial question is if megaships can in any true fashion really account for the safety of their charges? Can passengers be assured of the behaviour of their captains in any given situation? 

It was such a tragic irony that all safety vests in Costa Concordia were in the muster rooms and not in the staterooms where passengers could easily get hold of, don and swim to safety.

Another is the environmental nightmare now hanging like the proverbial sword of Damocles.

What if the clunky crude oil in the vessel leaks? Lets not get there just yet.

 As how matters stand, there is no shipbuilding industry that is large enough inIndonesia, to cause the rest of the world to turn their heads. 

Well, if a throw of the dice is to be taken, the prognosis actually is not yet! 

“There is no question of supply and demand here inIndonesia”, said Budhi Halim, adviser to Indonesian National Ship Owners Association (INSA) to Marine News Asia (MNA), in clear reference to the vessel sufficiencyJakartaenjoys facilitating intra-island trade across its vast archipelago of 17,000 islands.  

To outsiders Jakarta may be struggling with its port handling capacity. But that is not to deny that behind every nation’s bid in institutionalising cabotage, nothing comes unstuck better than in the need to develop sufficiency in tonnage numbers. 

So it is a national priority – as it has to be! As after all isn’tMalaysiatoo, seeking a similar outcome with its own brand of cabotage? 

But that’s where the similarity between both nations’ ends. 

Whilst Malaysia may be all strung up about patrol craft and luxury yachts etc, Indonesia’s concerns’ are more humdrum. 

Her rising population, depleting hydrocarbon reserves and rising trade volumes can only express itself in the ancillary of the nation needing more of the kind of vessels needed to transport its wares. 

Tonnage is gravely lacking in Indonesia. True most of Indonesian ageing vessels’ may make insurers and operators turn up their noses. 

But that is no reason to underestimate the serious intent with which Jakarta is now viewing ship building as a growth industry. 

There are not just jobs to unleash into the economy from ship building but the overriding need is to replace ageing vessels. 

“There is a growth of demand for new builds in Indonesiafor the regeneration of present old national fleet”, chimed in Halim. 

It is just for that reason demand is growing for new builds to replace ageing Indonesian vessels, claimed Halim. It also is seeking foreign investor interest in its budding ship building industry. Halim adds, Jakarta is actively deliberating on tax and other incentives to pique foreign investors.

Google picture above shows the famous bund in Jakarta. More ships may soon roll out from Indonesia

Yet looking at all the economic morphing that has gone on over the last ten years, it is not hard to understand whyIndonesianeeds ultra modern vessels.

At no time in the nation’s history has prosperity reached the levels the country is now witnessing.

The middle class has grown to 40 million according to news reports. That by a multiplier extension has also meant a corresponding increase in its car population.   

MNA understands from highly-placed Transport Ministry officials thatJakarta will soon begin exporting cars to its principal markets in theMiddle East. That not just means the development of personal car carriers but the probable instance of a car terminal, according to the source. 

Indonesia’s port authorities, Pelindo I & II, are already gearing up plans to operate Kalibaru port by 2014; an undertaking they just need to have, to relieve nagging congestion at the main transhipmentport ofTanjung Priok. A new port, Sorong in Papua is widely expected to come on stream. 

The nation is also experiencing a great many new building orders from Arab countries, according to the source. That disclosure amid a preference by shipping lines to buy “used, second-hand vessels” is indeed something of an ‘oxymoron’; as it leaves to wonder why Indonesian ship owners would want used vessels (that are presumably unsafe) than get the first-rate, safer ones her yards churn out.   

Yet amid all that has been said Jakartai s not pulling away from eyeing shipbuilding. 

Its National Logistics Blueprint (NJB) unveiled in March 2011 has correctly identified logistics challenges “in the flow of goods and ensure [its] availability in domestic and international markets”. 

The island of Batam close toSingapore is filled to the brim with yards and shipbuilding prowess of every conceivable kind. 

With technology from German companies and several more, something really is stirring inIndonesiato spook the likes of other ship building nations. 

Look out, China, Vietnam, Japan and Korea. Indonesia too, is eyeing the race you are in