There Are Five Challenges Faced By The ILMATE Sector, From Raw Materials To Lack Of Innovation

JAKARTA - The Metal, Machinery, Transportation Equipment and Electronics (ILMATE) industry was able to grow by 5.53 percent until the third quarter of 2025. However, this growth was not as smooth as imagined.

ILMATE Director General of the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) Setia Diarta said, there are at least five challenges that are the cause of the weak competitiveness of the sector.

First, related to raw materials. According to the man who is familiarly called Tata, the main issue is the dependence of imports of precision metal raw materials and electronic components.

"This makes our industry vulnerable to global price fluctuations," said Tata at the Commission VII DPR RI Hearing Meeting (RDP) with the Directorate General of ILMATE at the Ministry of Industry at the Parliament Complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Wednesday, November 12.

Second, related to market competition. Tata explained, currently the ILMATE sector is facing dumping and violations of SNI, especially steel products and imported electronics from China. Then, there is an issue of using imported trucks non-EUR 4 in the mining area.

"Here, law enforcement and import supervision are the keys that we must both pay attention to," he said.

The third challenge is energy and logistics costs. "Our energy rates and logistics costs are still relatively high compared to competitive countries. (As a result) it immediately hits on the efficiency and selling price of our products," he explained.

Fourth, related to regulations and incentives. Tata assessed, there needs to be stronger incentive support for domestically produced truck vehicles.

Not only that, according to Tata, currently the implementation of supervision and law enforcement in the metal industry sector is still weak. This triggers the flood of imported goods into the domestic market, especially for steel and electronics products.

Fifth, there are still minimal human resources (HR) and innovation. "Here we still lack R&D activities and the availability of experts, such as CNC coaching CAD/CAM machining, showing the urgency of investment in human resources and technology," explained Tata.

Of the five challenges faced, said Tata, three of them are crucial and require immediate solutions.

"Of these five areas, we convey that energy or logistics costs, enforcement of regulations and limitations of human resources/innovation are three areas that really need support, both budget and legislative from Commission VII DPR RI, especially competitive performance," he added.