State-owned mining holding firm Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) and its subsidiaries, tin miner PT Timah, diversified mining company Aneka Tambang (Antam) and coal miner PT Bukit Asam (PTBA), expect to export commodities amounting to at least US$2.52 billion in 2018, up 33 percent from last year.

The projection comprises contributions from Antam worth $1.04 billion, from Bukit Asam amounting to $829 million, from PT Timah worth $563 million and Inalum worth $79 million.

“Our plan is to book $2.5 billion in exports […] If we are able to acquire Freeport, then it can contribute $7 billion a year, so our total export contribution can reach almost $10 billion,” Inalum president director Budi Gunawan Sadikin told a media briefing in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Inalum signed in July a heads of agreement (HoA) with United States-based Freeport McMoran for the divestment of 51 percent stakes of PT Freeport Indonesia, which operates Grasberg, the world’s largest gold mine located in Papua province.

Budi said on Wednesday that the process was nearing its completion.

PT Bukit Asam said it would increase production for high-calorie coal to jack up exports.

The firm has projected high-calorie coal production to reach 1 million tons by the end of 2018.

This year, Bukit Asam expects to export 12.1 million tons of coal, up from 9.2 million tons in 2017.

The company’s export destinations include Southeast Asia, China, India and Japan.

“PTBA will be able to generate foreign exchange reserves worth around $850 million,” said Bukit Asam president director Arviyan Arifin.

PT Timah, meanwhile, has sent 90 percent of its output to the US, as well as countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Amid global pressures causing the rupiah to slump to its lowest point against the US dollar in 20 years, the government has urged exporters to bring back export revenues to reduce the current account deficit, which widened to 3 percent of GDP in the second quarter of 2018.

The rupiah weakened slightly to Rp 14,863 per US dollar on Wednesday, from Rp 14,835 a day earlier, according to Bank Indonesia’s (BI) Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (JISDOR).

State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Rini Soemarno said on Wednesday that on top of boosting exports, the mining holding company should develop the country’s value-added downstream sectors, which had not been progressing well so far.

“This is our weakness: not being able to successfully [develop] the downstream sectors. For examples, bauxite can actually be made into aluminum, nickel to stainless steel,” Rini explained.

Budi added that the blue print for downstream activities had been prepared a long time ago, but had not been applied well in reality, partly because of challenges in funding and technology.

So far, Aneka Tambang has been making efforts to expand to the mineral downstream industry by producing ferronickel.

In the first half of 2018, it produced 12,811 tons ferronickel, up 37 percent from the same period a year before.

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