The Ministry Of Industry Says The Performance Of Industry In The First Quarter Of 2024 Is Not Ideal, Prohibition Of Imports Is The Cause

Manufacturing (Photo: dock. Antara)

JAKARTA - Secretary General of the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) Eko SA Cahyanto admitted that industrial performance in early 2024 was hampered by several factors, one of which was the regulation on the prohibition of importing raw materials.

The regulation of imports of raw materials itself is regulated in the Regulation of the Minister of Trade (Permendag) Number 36 of 2023 concerning Policy and Import Regulation which is then revised to Permendag Number 7 of 2024.

"So, our (industry) continues to grow even though its growth is not what we expected," said Eko during a media gathering at his office, quoted Wednesday, May 8.

Meanwhile, BPS noted that the processing industry was able to grow by 4.13 percent yoy in the first quarter of 2024. This figure is smaller than the growth in the first quarter of 2023 which was 4.43 percent yoy and in the first quarter of 2022 it was 5.07 percent.

Eko also detailed that there are several factors that are the cause, such as seasonal factors where at the beginning of the year the industry has not increased their production capacity. In addition, there is also a factor in the lartas of imported raw materials.

"Why is it not ideal, at the beginning of this year the industry usually has not immediately boosted (production). Moreover, at the end of last year there was a regulatory change which resulted in adjustments to the supply chain side," said Eko.

"The new regulations, right, also result in new adjustments, we also have to draw up new regulations. So, there is indeed a period of him (the industry) is a bit hampered, but it's only been a short time," he continued.

Even so, the Ministry of Industry is optimistic that the industry will continue to maintain a positive trend of growth, where supporting aspects such as new orders, the availability of raw materials and productivity still show a positive trend.

Furthermore, Eko is optimistic that the industry will continue to grow as well as seeing the trend of investment that is included in this sector.

"The Ministry of Investment/BKPM also released a fairly large investment figure. That's mostly about 20 percent in the basic metal industry, plus the chemical industry around 10 percent. Then, in the pharmaceutical industry sector and there are also several other sub-sectors whose numbers are from the total incoming investment, indeed from the industrial sector," he added.