Erick Thohir: United Arab Emirates Company Ready To Disburse IDR 31.2 T For Raw Materials In Electric Cars

Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir after exercising his voting rights in the 2024 General Election at TPS 17, Tebet, Jakarta, Wednesday (14/2/2024). (ANTARA/Maria Cicilia Galuh)

JAKARTA - The government continues to intensify the downstream program. Not only will it encourage nickel downstream, but it will also expand to bauxite commodities. In fact, there are already companies from the United Arab Emirates that are ready to disburse US$2 billion or equivalent to Rp31.2 trillion (assuming an exchange rate of Rp15,600 per US dollar).

SOE Minister Erick Thohir said related to the downstream program for bauxite commodities, the government is encouraging the development of green aluminum. The green aluminum is the raw material for electric car bodies.

Furthermore, Erick said that there are already companies from the United Arab Emirates, Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA) will invest in creating green aluminum.

"Bauksit kan kita sudah punya Inalum. Kita sudah berbicara dengan EGA UAE untuk mulai menciptakan green aluminium, supaya bisa digunakan untuk market-market di luar negeri yang dibutuhkan untuk body mobil listrik," kata Erick Thohir saat ditemukan di JIEXpo Kemayoran, Jakarta, Minggu, 18 Februari.

Erick said the company from the United Arab Emirates would invest nearly US$2 billion or equivalent to Rp31.2 trillion in bauxite downstream pads. Erick also hopes that this downstream can suppress aluminum imports.

"The investment is almost 2 billion US dollars and if we can produce this, our aluminum used to be 60 percent of our imports can be reduced. So that we can secure almost IDR 53 trillion in Indonesian and international transactions," he said.

Furthermore, Erick said, the downstream bauxite will be carried out this year and the results will be seen in 2027. Meanwhile, nickel downstream itself has been running since 2015-2016.

"This is our bauxite starting this year, later we will see the 2027 bauxite," he said.

Erick said that the memorandum of understanding or MoU regarding the downstreaming of bauxite with the United Arab Emirates had actually been signed. However, the downstreaming was hampered by the supply of green electricity.

"We already have an MoU but at that time there were difficulties for green electricity. PLN already has a commitment to provide a green electricity solution, so this is what we encourage," he explained.