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State holding to be RI’s battering ram into global battery market

Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post)

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Jakarta

Sat, October 17, 2020 Published on Oct. 16, 2020 Published on 2020-10-16T23:24:57+07:00

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A driver plugs in Bluebird e-taxi during the debut of the company's electric taxi in Jakarta, Monday, April 22, 2019.

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ndonesia has mobilized three of its biggest state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and opened talks with two foreign multinationals to bring Southeast Asia’s largest economy into the world’s highly lucrative electric vehicle (EV) battery market.

The SOEs Ministry has ordered mining holding MIND ID, oil and gas giant Pertamina and electricity monopoly PLN to establish a holding company – tentatively called “PT Indonesia Battery Holding” – that will develop an end-to-end domestic supply chain for EV batteries. The trio are also in talks with China’s CATL and South Korea’s LG Chem, the world’s top two EV battery makers by output, to invest between US$12 billion and $20 billion in developing the dream supply chain.

PT Indonesia Battery Holding aimed to produce between 8 and 10 gigawatt hours (GWh) worth of batteries each year, starting around two to three years from now, said MIND ID president director Orias Petrus Moedak during an online press briefing on Thursday.

“The SOEs minister expects the EVs to also be built domestically but, of course, if we produce more batteries than needed, then the logical step is to export [the excess output],” he said.