A Short Profile Of 3 European Companies Interested In Investment In Indonesia

Illustration of European company Volkswagen (Unsplash)

YOGYAKARTA Not long ago President Joko Widodo held a meeting with three European companies with investment interest in Indonesia which was held at the Kasins Luisenhoff Hotel, Hannover, Germany. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the President's state visit on Sunday 16 April.

As explained by the Minister of Investment/Head of BKPM Bahlil Lahadalia through his official statement, he said that the three companies in question were BASF, Eramet, and Volkswagen. The short profiles of the three companies are as follows.

Quoted from various sources, BASF is a company engaged in the field of kimi from Germany. The company is the largest chemical company in the world centered in Ludwigshafen. The company was founded on April 6, 1865 by FriedrichGGelhorn, an industrialist from Germany.

In the 1960s, BASF had expanded to various countries by setting up factories. Several countries are included in its expansion areas such as Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the United States.

BASF itself produces various chemicals such as solvents, amina, resin, glue, electronic chemistry, industrial gas, basic chemistry, and inorganic chemistry. BASF sells its products to companies engaged in the drug industry, construction, textiles, and automotive industries.

European companies that are also interested in investing in Indonesia are Eramet, a company engaged in French multinational mines and metallurgicals. The company was founded in 1880 with Rothschild's family funds, one of Europe's influential families.

The Eramet company became the 2nd largest manufacturer of manganese metals in the world which was then used as steel raw material. The company opened factories in Europe, North America, and China.

Eramet produces non-ferrous metals as well as their derivatives, nickel and superalloy alloys, and special steel with high performances. Eramet targets companies engaged in electric batteries to fertilizers.

In Indonesia, the name Volkswagen (VW) is quite familiar to the ear. VW is known as an automotive multinational corporation whose center is in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The automotive company was founded by the German Labor Union (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) in 1937. VW itself carries out industrial activities that include design, production, to distributing passenger and commercial vehicles in the form of motorcycles, machinery, to financial services, financing and fleet management.

Through the Volkswagen Group, the company sells various types of vehicles such as the car type, namely the Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Autokoda, Lamborghini, and SEAT brands. VW also sells motorcycles with the Ducati brand and Neoplan branded commercial vehicles.

As is known, there are three European companies that have expressed interest in investing in Indonesia. Bahlil Lahadalia explained that the plan is for BASF to work with Eramet to create a car battery ecosystem, namely by building a business by taking into account environmental factors, social and governance (ESG)/environmental, social and governance factors, and using green energy.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen, through PowerCo, said that they wanted to build a car battery ecosystem in Indonesia with a cooperation scheme with various companies including national companies.

Those are some European companies with investment interest in Indonesia. Visit VOI.ID to get other interesting information.