Indonesia's largest shipping terminal, the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT), forecasts container handling to plunge heavily this year due to slowing exports and imports.
JICT President Derek J. Pierson said shipping business is estimated to drop 30 per cent overall this year with exports likely to shrink 15 per cent and import down 30 per cent, due to the global economic slowdown.
The crisis began to bite in the last quarter of 2008 when the number of containers handled by JICT declined 30 per cent, Pierson said.
JICT, which is 51 per cent owned by the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings and 48.9 per cent by state port operator PT Pelindo II predicted a 30 per cent fall in container handling to 1.33 million teu of containers from around 1.9 million teuTEUs last year.