Sinking Indonesia Docks,  Idle Ships Spur $6 Billion Port Revamp

The scene in Semarang on Indonesia’s Java island looks like it belongs to the previous century, if not the one before that. On a humid March day, trucks laden with goods bump through pools of seawater on roads to the sinking Dutch-era port. Shirtless men heave sacks of rice off wooden schooners as a lighthouse from 1884 towers above. At the container facility next door, by contrast, there are signs of modernity, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its June issue. Laborers are expanding the storage yard and lengthening the dock to accommodate three ships at a time, up from one. Pumps keep the seawater at bay.

For Sutikno Khusumo, the confluence of old and new symbolizes what’s wrong with Indonesia’s port system—and shows why he’s hopeful that President Joko Widodo will fix it. Sutikno’s father, Harto, started a shipping company with one leased boat in 1987. Today, Pelayaran Tempuran Emas is the nation’s biggest container shipper, with 22 vessels. But the fleet, which navigates the 17,000 islands of the world’s largest archipelago, can spend as much time waiting as it does sailing. “If there are delays, it’s like throwing all your money in the sea,” Sutikno says.