JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - A mining industrial zone’ manager, PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) plans to list its shares in 2021, said the management yesterday. Most of the proceed from the initial public offering (IPO) will use to finance its investment funds to build the industrial areas in Morowali, Central Sulawesi in years.
According to the CEO, Alexander Barus, total investment for the four nickel cobalt factories with High Pressure Acid Leaching technology worth of US$3 billion. Now, there are numbers of nickel processing and refining smelters, such as Nickel Pig Iron, ferronickel, stainless steel, and lithium battery components are operated in the industrial areas.
He said, four factories in Morowali will produce nickel cobalt cathodes with a total capacity of 240,000 tons of pure nickel. When this is completed, it will become one of the largest nickel cobalt smelters in the world. In the industrial area, there are also lithium battery recycling plant to built. His company also aimed to build port in the industrial zone.
Special staff for energy and mineral resources ministry, Irwandy Arif, said on Oct. 13, IMIP is now the biggest player in the Indonesian nickel industry with a percentage even reaching 50 percent since 2018. Based on the official data, in 2014 the nickel industry still controlled by PT Vale Indonesia Tbk (IDX: INCO) by 77 percent, followed by PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (IDX: ANTM) 19 percent, and others 3 percent.
Earlier, coordinating minister for maritime and investment affairs, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, said the government was serious about supporting the success of electric car investment in Indonesia to meet the needs of Asian and Australian consumers. So far, the ministry had accept various investment commitments in the lithium battery projects in Indonesia.
As an example, PT QMB New Energy Minerals has commit to invest $700 million in Morowali. Then, PT Halmahera Persada Lygend also has committed to pouring out Rp14.8 trillion ($1.05 billion) of investment in Halmahera, North Maluku. And, PT International Chemical Industry disbursed Rp207.5 billion to produce as many as 25 million lithium ion cell batteries which are equivalent to 256 MWh per year.
“PT International Chemical Industry will begin to enter the commercial pre-production stage at the end of 2020 and begin to enter the stage commercial production in 2021,” said director general at the industry ministry office, Putu Juli Ardika in an official statement released on July 29.
Previously, South Korea’ Hyundai Motor Co., affirmed a $2.8 billion investment in the development of electric vehicles in West Java, as the company seeks to make Indonesia its key export hub. The manufacturer aims to start operations in 2022.
Masayoshi Son, the founder of Japanese technology investment giant Softbank, after met President Joko Widodo promised to pledged at least $2 billion to support online-based mobility solutions and the development of electric vehicles (EV) in Indonesia.
He continued, the government will continues to encourage the investment in the battery development for electric car. He said, Indonesia has the availability of natural resources like nickel and cobalt that can used to support the projects.
The government has formed a team to accelerate the involvement of the industry players to develop the lithium batteries such as state-owned enterprises namely PT Indonesia Asahan Inalum (MIND ID), Antam, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara, and PT Pertamina. Widodo has expressed his desired to make Indonesia become the second largest EV production center in Southeast Asia.
He also wants the country have an electric car industry in Indonesia to reduce dependence on fossil energy. The head of state has officially signed into effect a presidential decree that will accelerate the development of EV in the archipelago.
The regulation had been under discussion for more than a year as the president’ intent to pursue cleaner modes of transportation met with nationalistic resistance and demands for protection of local automakers.
Nickel, a metal that is a key ingredient in the production of lithium-ion batteries for the latest generation of EV, is in abundance in Indonesia, giving the country comparative advantage. Widodo said the regulation would ensure that Indonesia’ electric car industry exploits this advantage.
One type of environmentally friendly vehicles that will be prioritized by Widodo is an alternative fuel vehicle or called a ‘flexy’ car. Widodo revealed that most electric cars available in the market today were about 40 percent more expensive than fossil-fueled cars.
Therefore, he hoped that Indonesia’ ubiquitous resources of materials required for making the batteries would help push prices down, thus creating greater demand for EV. The government has asked French’ Renault and Swedish’ Volvo Group to consider building factories or assembly units in Indonesia, as it eyes production of 750,000 EV by 2030.
While Japan’ Toyota Motor Corp., and Germany’ Volkswagen has shown interest in manufacturing EV. The country’ total vehicle production is seen more than doubling to 3 million units during the period.
Widodo has promised give a tax incentives to draw foreign investment in the EV projects to save the country’ Rp798 trillion dependence on the crude oil imports.
US$1: Rp14,000
Written by Staff Editor, Email: theinsiderstories@gmail.com
