Patimban Port Marks First Large-Scale Car Export Shipment

The Jakarta Globe
December 17, 2021 | 10:08 pm

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Vehicles await shipment at Patimban Port in Subang, West Java, on December 17, 2021. The newly-built port marked its first major export shipment with the delivery of over 1,200 vehicles to the Philippines. (Antara Photo/Dedhez Anggara)

Jakarta. The Patimban seaport in the West Java town of Subang reached a new milestone on Friday by delivering its first major export shipment comprising 1,209 cars to the Philippines.

The celebration for the new achievement came just three days ahead of the port’s first anniversary since it was inaugurated by President Joko Widodo and coincided with the transfer of management to new operators.

Patimban Port was first operated by state-run shipping company Pelindo but the management is now handled jointly by Pelabuhan Patimban International (PPI) and Toyota Tshusho Corporation, the trading arm of Japanese auto giant Toyota Corporation.

"It symbolizes cooperation between Indonesia and Japan. The collaboration between PPI and Toyota Tshusho is expected to make services in vehicles exports and imports better and more competitive in the future,” Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said during the handover ceremony.

Budi said the new export and import gateway will help boost Indonesia’s competitiveness in the logistics industry at the regional level and make Indonesia one of the biggest vehicle export bases in Asia.

Patimban Port Marks First Large-Scale Car Export Shipment — Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi, center, leads a ceremony to mark the shipment of 1,209 vehicles from the newly-built Patimban Port in Subang, West Java, to the Philippines, December 17, 2021. (Antara Photo/Dedhez Anggara)

Located around 140 kilometers east of Jakarta, Patimban Port is an alternative to the country’s most crowded Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta. It provides easier access to major vehicle and auto parts manufacturers which are mostly based in the neighboring districts of Bekasi and Karawang.

The government aims to have a new industrial hub and urban living in Patimban and surrounding districts and the port alone is expected to create 4.3 million jobs within the next 15 years. West Java is the country’s most populous province.

When the president inaugurated Patimban Port on December 20, 2020, his government revealed that the construction cost is about $3 billion. The inaugural export shipment at that time comprised 140 Toyota and Daihatsu cars bound for Brunei Darussalam.

The government said it will take until 2027 to complete the industrial hub in Patimban while a toll road heading to the new port is targeted to complete in 2023.