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View all search resultsIBC urges policy support to streamline nickel battery industry, fend off imports
The head of the state-owned battery holding company has urged stronger, more integrated policy support to streamline the nickel battery industry so it could better meet domestic demand and build resilience against foreign imports seeking to enter the local EV market.
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Warehouse shelves hold boxes of finished battery cells on Aug. 28, 2024, at the electric vehicle battery plant of PT HLI Green Power, a joint venture between South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution, at Karawang New Industry City (KNIC) in Karawang, West Java.
(AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)
T
he domestic nickel-based battery industry needs stronger policy support to become competitive so it can unlock investment and capture more value from the country’s vast nickel resources, according to state-owned holding company Indonesia Battery Corporation (IBC).
IBC president director Aditya Farhan Arif said Southeast Asia’s largest economy had built a sizeable electric vehicle market, but its battery and mineral industries remained poorly linked to that demand, and much of the domestic nickel output was still geared toward global markets.
Of roughly 100,000 electric vehicles sold in the country last year, only around 4,000 used nickel batteries.
“Simply expanding battery production will not be enough to build an integrated domestic industry. We also need fiscal support and policies that create predictable demand and allow locally made batteries to compete with imports,” Aditya said on Wednesday.
Read also: Prabowo kicks off e-motorcycle ecosystem to push nickel use
He pointed other countries using large incentives to help their battery industries reach economies of scale. Without fiscal support, he added, overseas producers with excess capacity could increasingly target Indonesia and compete on price as they sought new markets.
Indonesia has the world’s largest nickel reserves, accounting for around 46 percent of global reserves, and the government is seeking to capture more value by processing the metal into EV battery cells and battery packs.
