In These Four Areas, The Indonesian Government Will Build an EV Battery Factory

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Multymeter.com – The government continues to strive to boost the development of the Battery-Based Electric Motor Vehicle (KBLBB) ecosystem in Indonesia. The proof is that the government will determine four areas that will become centers of electric vehicle battery factories.

Deputy for Investment and Mining at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs, Septian Hario Seto, said that in addition to the nickel processing industrial area, PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) is located in Morowali Regency, Central Sulawesi. There are still several other areas that will become the center of battery factory development.

Among them are PT Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP) in Weda District, Central Halmahera Regency, North Maluku Province. Then the industry in Konawe Regency, and finally the industry in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi.

“So I think the ecosystem that we will build is not only Morowali, it is in Weda Bay, Konawe is in Pomalaa. Now we are developing technology for processing low grade nickel ore,” Seto told CNBC Indonesia quoted Tuesday (8/11/2022).

Furthermore, Seto said that the project pipeline for processing nickel ore into batteries in Indonesia in the next two to three years will have an investment value of around US$ 19 billion. There are at least 18 ongoing projects, all of which are outside the investment of LG Energy Solution and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL).

“So it’s quite a significant investment in the battery. What’s interesting is that there is 1 investment in the anode, this is interesting, actually we don’t have any raw materials at all. The raw material is graphite, we don’t have it. the battery that we built has started to grow,” he said.

In this regard, in the next two weeks, it is reported that the electric vehicle battery factory will officially operate in Morowali, Central Sulawesi. “So later on 21-22 there will be an inauguration ceremony for the battery factory in Morowali,” said Seto.
Seto ensured that the government had prepared competent human resources (HR) to be employed in the integrated battery factory. The government has also built an industrial polytechnic to train local high school graduates to be ready to work.

“Once we graduate, the industry will immediately absorb it. This is our effort to improve human resources. So it’s not true that we are importing foreign workers on a large scale, I don’t think so,” he said.

In addition, the government has also distributed scholarships to around 35 students to pursue postgraduate studies in China. So that when the battery factory is completed, the operation of the battery factory can be carried out by local power.

“There are already 35 people who have been sent to master’s education so that they can return to work and operate a battery raw material factory whose technology is not widely used by many countries and they will send another batch of 2. So I think this may be something that is not widely known, and needs to be straightened out, ” he said.***