Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The government continues to encourage downstreaming in the mineral mining sector, especially nickel. Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment General TNI (Ret.) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said downstream development has been running for seven years.
In the Inauguration of the 2021-2026 Appointment Board of Trustees and the 2021-2026 Rakernas XIII Appointment in Bali which was broadcast on Apkasi’s YouTube, Saturday (19/06/2021), Luhut even said that the electric car giant from the United States (US), Tesla Inc. confused to see this.
“Development of downstream, seven years of work, this is a lot of people who really don’t know, Tesla is just confused to see this,” he said.
Luhut said downstreaming requires a very large investment. He also said that downstreaming was not only done by workers from China.
For example, Luhut added, in Morowali of 50 thousand workers, only around 4,000 workers come from China. And these workers will be gradually replaced with graduates of Morowali Polytechnic.
“We hope that by 2024, lithium batteries will have been produced and that later production of battery packs of up to 100 megawatts (MW) will save energy. Electric cars will start producing only batteries at the end of 2023 or 2024,” said Luhut.
Furthermore, he said that now in Indonesia there are new industries that are integrated from east to west. According to Luhut, on July 3, there will be the first shipment of alumina in Bintan.
“The investment of almost US$ 2 billion will grow and we will develop it in West Kalimantan. Look again in Morowali, we will see the first export of High Pressure Acid Leach (HPAL) built from lithium batteries,” he explained.
The former Chief of the Presidential Staff Office said all of this was integrated and most of his investment came from China. But there are also from France, Indonesia, and Australia. According to him, Indonesia is currently subject to anti-dumping by China because the cost is cheaper.
“Because our costs are cheaper than China, we are subject to additional taxes because they are cheaper than goods produced in China,” he explained.
Why are Indonesian products cheaper? Luhut explained that electricity in the country is cheap, at US$ 5 cents per kilowatt-hour (kwh), transportation costs at US$ 1-2 per ton. Meanwhile in China, electricity is US$ 9-12 per kWh and transportation is US$ 5-10 per ton.
“If we can manage the country well, Indonesia will become a good country. Indonesia is included in the global supply chain. This nickel downstream will strengthen steel exports. This year it will be almost US$ 20 billion for one of the pillars of our economy,” he said. .
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