Indonesia to build up EV battery industry with new venture

“A group of Indonesian state-owned companies will form a venture to make batteries to power electric vehicles,” Reuters reported, citing an announcement by the Mining Industry Indonesia (MIND ID) chief executive on October 13.

Called Indonesia Battery Holding, the new entity is set to be established by state miners MIND ID and Aneka Tambang (ANTAM ), the government-owned electric power distribution company Perusahaan Listrik Negara, and state oil firm Pertamina, said MIND ID CEO Orias Petrus Moedak during a webinar.

“We are preparing a concrete cooperation plan so that the nickel utilization project can start immediately to produce batteries,” he added.

Indonesia Battery Holding will help build an industry that would cover the production of chemicals and minerals used in battery production, as well as battery production itself and recycling. It would also create partnerships with Chinese and Korean firms on two projects that are pegged to have a value of US$12 billion, Orias shared.

The chief exec also said that ANTAM would work on related EV battery projects as well, which are valued between US$2 billion and US$3 billion.