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Indonesia to have seven new smelters this year
The government is racing to operate 53 smelters by 2024 to meet downstreaming goals.
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (white shirt, left) during the groundbreaking ceremony of PT Freeport Indonesia's copper smelter in Gresik, East Java, on Oct. 12, 2021. (BPMI Setpres/Lukas)
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record-high seven metal smelters are scheduled to come online this year as companies catch up on project deadlines amid the ongoing economic recovery.
Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry data from Jan. 20 showed that 2022 would see the highest one-year increase in new smelter units since at least 2015, a year after Indonesia introduced a regulation to ban all raw metal exports.
The seven smelters comprise two nickel, one lead, one zinc, one alumina and two iron smelters, some of which were carried over from last year. These new facilities would bring the total number of operational smelters in Indonesia to 28 by the end of the year.
“[Development] of the downstream industry and increasing added value are mandated by the law,” said energy ministry Mining Director General Ridwan Djamaluddin.
Smelter construction is part of the government’s larger scheme to foster downstreaming in extractive industries to grow the economy. To achieve this, regulators have permanently banned exports of nickel ore and plans to enact similar bans on bauxite and raw copper starting June 2023.
Indonesia, formerly the world's top nickel ore exporter, shook global markets with its export ban. The European Union has brought Indonesia to the World Trade Organization to challenge the ban.
