After China And South Korea, Antam Jajaki In Collaboration With The Global Builds A Nickel Factory For Main Materials For Electric Vehicles,

Photo: Doc. Antara

JAKARTA - President Director of PT Aneka Tambang or Antam Nico Kanter revealed that his party is currently exploring cooperation with a number of global companies to build a first-class nickel factory as the main ingredient for electric vehicle batteries.

In his presentation, Nico said, nickel has two types, namely first-class nickel which is used for electric vehicle batteries and second-class nickel used for stainless steel products.

According to him, factories in Indonesia, including those in Southeast Sulawesi, have only processed second-class nickel into nickel pig iron or feronicles which were then lowered to stainless steel.

Meanwhile, first-class nickel is nickel which is produced into mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) or mixed sulphide precipitate (MSP) in the form of materials used to be precursors or cathode which eventually becomes an electric vehicle battery.

"So this first-class nickel does not yet have a factory in Indonesia, but we have signed several cooperation agreements to build precursor smelters and batteries," Nico said in the RDP with Commission VI DPR RI in Jakarta, Monday, September 12.

He added that currently Antam and IBC, which are both under the auspices of Inalum, have signed a framework agreement which will form the basis for agreements that not only build smelters but also cathodes, precursors, batteries and battery recycling.

In March earlier, Antam together with Indonesia Battery Corporation (IBC) signed two initial agreements with the company Ningbo Contemporary Brunp Lygen (CBL) from China and LG Corporations from South Korea.

The two foreign companies are consortiums that include not only experts in building factories, but also cathode and electric vehicle batteries.

In the consortium, Antam's position is in the upstream sector because it has the largest equity and natural resources in the form of nickel. Antam will sign a joint venture agreement (JVA) contract with CBL.

"We as resource owners certainly have the largest equity. So, later on in the JVA, we have 51 percent and CBL or LG will have 49 percent," Nico explained.

Then, after upstream will enter the construction of a smelter to produce derivative products that will be processed into cathode and precursor. In the smelter joint venture contract, the composition of Antam and IBC ownership is only 40 percent and the remaining 60 percent is owned by CBL and LG.

CBL builds its factory in the East Halmahera area, North Maluku, as well as LG, only the regions are different. The next derivative factory they leave in Batang, Central Java.

"We will enter the electric vehicle battery industry, so it is no longer just on stainless steel for the final derivative," he concluded.