Indonesian shipping services company Humpuss Intermoda Transportasi plans to expand into the dredging businees this year, looking for jobs from government port building projects across the archipelago to compensate for a decline in the company's commodity transport business, local media reported.

The company has set aside $20m to $100m to invest in acquiring 40 new ships for dredging, Humpuss president director Theo Lekatompessy said.

Humpuss is assessing a possible cooperation with an unnamed Dutch or Belgian company for the business.Indonesian President Joko Widodo is spending trillions of rupiah to build and expand new ports as part of his maritime infrastructure initiative to bring down the country's logistics costs.

Humpuss's plan will raise the company's capital expenditure this year to $254m from the initial $154m allocated for buying tankers and LNG carriers.

The company will fund up to a quarter of the investment with its internal cash, with the remainder coming from bank loans, Theo said.