With its nickel reserves, Indonesia is betting on the electric car industry
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Indonesia, the world’s leading country for its nickel reserves, is determined to take advantage of the announced take-off of the electric car and related industries – particularly batteries. US manufacturer Tesla has signed supply contracts for nickel-containing products with two companies based in the country, including one worth $5 billion (4.86 billion euros) for five years, announced Monday, August 8, in Jakarta, the Indonesian Minister in charge of investments, Luhut Pandjaitan, on the sidelines of a forum to promote the country as a destination for foreign investment. Negotiations are continuing, the minister said.
Mr. Pandjaitan traveled to the United States in April with a delegation of industrialists to meet Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX. The following month, the Indonesian President himself, Joko Widodo, was invited to Boca Chica, Texas, on SpaceX’s future launch site, for discussions with the American billionaire on his future projects in the country. The leading economic power in Southeast Asia, with 273 million inhabitants, aims to reduce its carbon emissions by 41% by 2030 and intends to present itself, during the G20 summit which it hosts in November, as a nation of the future for green industries.
The two foundries that will supply Tesla produce hydroxides from the processing of nickel-bearing ores that are used to manufacture batteries. They are located in the Morowali industrial park, in the central part of the island of Celebes, where the largest integrated nickel production site in the country is located. This is where one of the first local hydroxide production units, the joint venture of the Chinese groups Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt and Tsingshan Holding Group, has been operating since the beginning of the year.
Doors wide open
Elon Musk has also been approached by the Indonesian government to invest in an electric vehicle factory of 500,000 vehicles, either in Batang, on the island of Java, or on the island of Borneo, in the future North Kalimantan Green Industrial Park. (“North Kalimantan Green Industrial Park”). But the minister did not specify whether this project had advanced. Indonesia is seeking to move up the ranks in the nickel industry. After having set up a stainless steel manufacturing industry, the objective for it is now not only to develop the sector for transforming the ore into components for batteries, but to produce them directly on site, as well as electric vehicles – having an electric car industry has even been erected in “national priority” in 2019.
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