Indonesia adds nickel parks worth nearly $40 billion to strategic plan

Reuters | May 14, 2024 | 

Indonesian president Joko Widodo. (Image by Russian Presidential Executive Office, Wikimedia Commons).

Indonesia’s outgoing government has added 16 programs to its list of strategic projects that will receive state support, including five industrial parks for nickel processing, officials said on Tuesday.


The parks, worth a total of 636.9 trillion rupiah ($39.58 billion) in four different towns in Central and Southeast Sulawesi provinces, will produce mixed hydroxide precipitate and nickel and cobalt sulphate, used in the making of electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Indonesia, under outgoing President Joko Widodo, has been trying to leverage the world’s largest nickel reserves to attract foreign investment that will boost its position in the global supply chain of EV battery production.

President-elect Prabowo Subianto, who will take over in October, has pledged to continue Widodo’s policy.

The parks include a high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) plant, to be built by Indonesian company Anugrah Neo Energy Materials and China’s Gotion Indonesia Materials, that will have a total output capacity of 120,000 tons of nickel in MHP per year, and facilities built by China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co. Huayou has partnered with Vale Indonesia to build two HPAL plants in Sulawesi.

Italian energy group Eni’s $11.83 billion offshore gas project in North Ganal PSC in the Makassar Strait has also been labelled strategic.

Chief economic minister Airlangga Hartarto said the government would support the projects by expediting permits, helping with land clearing and providing assistance to get financing.

“The projects could support the government’s priority programs like developing the downstreaming sector, strengthening our energy and food security,” the minister said, referring to the nickel processing sector.

(By Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by Gayatri Suroyo and Nick Macfie)