According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of Batam, there is a surplus of USD 101.87 million as of April 2023. This surplus is due to the export value of Batam, which reached USD 1.14 billion, surpassing the import value of USD 1.04 billion. Cumulatively, the trade balance of Batam from January to April 2023 reached USD 335.09 million. The Head of BPS Batam, stated that the monthly export of Batam in April 2023 amounted to USD 1.14 billion, also looking at the cumulative data from January to April, the export value of Batam grew by 11.07% to USD 5.14 billion (YoY) compared to last year which was USD 4.62 billion. Also, cumulatively from January to April, the import value of Batam increased by 14.17 percent (YoY) from USD 4.20 billion in 2022 to USD 4.80 billion in 2023.

The Head of Batam Authority (BP Batam), emphasized his commitment to continue efforts to promote the modernization of port and road infrastructure. Specifically, the Batu Ampar port and road infrastructure development are aimed at facilitating the logistics flow in Batam to support export and import activities. However, the Batu Ampar until last year still used conventional manual crane equipment for years. Lately, the port have adopt the latest ship-to-shore (STS) crane technology to expedite container loading and unloading services at the Batu Ampar port. It is expected that the process of loading and unloading goods from ships to land can be faster, since the newly arrived STS Crane can handle 35 containers in one hour.  The construction of a 20-hectare container yard is also underway and in other words, Batam is now ready to become a container storage location for anyone. Once the container is stored in Batam, it can be taken out without any process because Batam is a Free Trade Zone. In the future, it is hope that Batam will become a logistics hub for other regions or provinces in Indonesia.

Source:
https://gowest.id/batam-mencatatkan-surplus-perdagangan-sebesar-usd-10187-juta/