Danantara Reviews Opportunities To Finance CATL's Electric Vehicle Battery Factory Project

CIO Danantara Pandu Sjahrir (Photo: Maria Trisnawati/VOI)

JAKARTA - Chief Investment Office (CIO) of the Anagata Nusantara Resources Investment Management Agency (Dantara) Pandu Sjahrir opens the opportunity to finance the electric vehicle battery factory project developed by PT Aneka Tambang Tbk. and IBC together with the Chinese battery giant, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL).

Pandu explained that until now his party is still conducting an in-depth study of this project and has not made direct financing. However, he opened the widest opportunity for Danantara to disburse fresh funds to a project that was previously called the Dragon Project.

"From our side (Danantara), we will definitely evaluate projects like this. This is a lot of added value, (there is) a job creation," he told the media crew quoted on Monday, June 30.

With a number of added values owned, Pandu admits that the imi project is a good strategic project to be funded by Danantara. For this reason, he asked the public to wait for the decision whether the Danantara would disburse financing or not.

"And we will commercially see everything. But this is good. Not yet. Later we will announce (the financing decision)," said Pandu.

For information, the Integrated Electric Battery Industry Ecosystem Project of the Antam-IBC-CBL Consortium is the world's first integrated nickel-based battery ecosystem and largest in Southeast Asia. This ecosystem starts from nickel mining in East Halmahera to the production of electric vehicle batteries in Karawang.

This project is part of the National Strategic Project (PSN) with an investment value of 5.9 billion US dollars and covers an area of 3,023 hectares and is able to absorb 35,000 direct workers, local economic growth, and 18 multifunctional dock infrastructure projects.

Overall, this project will have an electric vehicle battery production capacity of 6.9 GWh which will then be increased to 15 GWh. This will strengthen Indonesia's position as the largest electric vehicle battery producer in Southeast Asia. Later, the integrated electric battery industry is projected to supply batteries for 300,000 vehicles that can reduce fuel imports by 300,000 kiloliters per year.