Pupuk Kaltim Targets Soda Ash Factory To Start Commercial Production In 2027

PT Pupuk Kalimantan Timur or Pupuk Kaltim will build the first soda ash factory in Indonesia in the first quarter of 2025. The factory, which is located in Bontang, East Kalimantan, is targeted to start commercial production by the end of 2027.

Head of the Soda Ash Project Preparation Team, Rifki Adi Nugroho, said the construction of the first soda ash factory project in Indonesia took up to 33 months.

Furthermore, he said the factory, which was built on an area of 16 hectares (ha), would produce two products, namely soda ash 300,000 metric tons and ammonium chloride of 300,000 metric tons per year.

"We plan to get started in the first quarter of 2025, so we can start producing commercially at the end of 2027," he said in a virtual press conference, Monday, January 20.

Rifki said that currently, the raw materials for industrial needs are still supplied by imports. Therefore, he said, the existence of this soda ash factory is faced with being able to substitute imports of up to 30 percent of the national demand for soda ash.

"This cash ash is a raw material for industrial purposes, and unfortunately almost 100 percent of the needs are still supplied by imports, so with Pupuk Kaltim building 300,000 tons per year, we can substitute imports of up to 30 percent of the national soda ash needs," he said.

Regarding the soda ash market, Rifki said that later he would be in Java, especially West Java and East Java, as well as on the island of Sumatra.

"We hope we can provide soda ash to the market," he explained.

Rifki said the construction of the soda ash factory will also create a multiplier effect for national economics. He said the construction of the factory would use construction materials originating from within the country with the fulfillment of the Domestic Component Level (TKDN).

"Of course the government can get potential for the state with substitution of imported soda ash. So the following is a multiplier effect, so not only the government, we can also involve the community later," he said.