• A container traffic forecast. The study involved gathering port traffic and national economic data, reviewing the port hinterland, a preliminary forecast of total and container traffic for western Java, and an evaluation of the Bojonegara terminal's competitiveness with the Port of Tanjung Priok (Jakarta). It also included development of a ministerial position paper on the rationale for port development at Bojonegara.
• A review of Indonesian and regional port tariffs, and development of a tariff schedule for the new port.
• A review of world, regional and local container shipping to choose the design ship for the port.

The project established that container traffic will likely continue to grow at high rates, although the forecasts Seaport recommended for project evaluation involved growth rates below those of the recent past. Notwithstanding that Tanjung Priok received about half of its container throughput as feeders from Singapore and much of the residual traffic was in second-generation vessels in the intra-Asian trades, the study concluded that the new port should be for post-Panamax ships. Traffic development in Indonesia had reached the point where major shipping lines will likely add a western Java port to the major Asia/Europe and Asia/west coast USA trades, and feed traffic to it from other Indonesian ports.

As background to the study, container traffic through the Port of Tanjung Priok, Indonesia (adjacent to the city of Jakarta) grew at some 20 to 25 percent a year for a decade to reach about 1.2 million TEU in 1994. Although the port's two container terminals reached effective capacity at the end of 1994, the high rate of traffic growth seemed likely to continue because of the rapid development of manufacturing industry in western Java. The phasing of Container Terminal Three at Tanjung Priok, whose construction began in 1995 (3 berths and some 900,000 TEU capacity), did not appear to meet incremental traffic growth beyond the next few years.

The Government of Indonesia, Indonesia Port Corporation II (which operates the Port of Tanjung Priok near Jakarta) and private Indonesian investors decided to develop a new, private container port in the Bojonegara area west of Jakarta. These parties in turn engaged a consortium of Australian companies (comprising, among others, P&O Australia and McMillan Britton & Kell Pty Ltd.) to investigate the feasibility of building the container port under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract. The consortium retained Seaport Consultants Canada Inc. and PT Dwipantara Transconsult (an Indonesian consultancy) to assist with the feasibility study and port planning.