TPN Ganjar Mahfud Says Indonesia Has Not Reached The Nickel Downstream Stage, Just Smelterized

Deputy Secretary of TPN Ganjar Mahfud, Hotasi Nababan (Photo: YouTube screenshot)

JAKARTA - The National Winning Team (TPN) Ganjar Mahfud MD assessed that the creation of added value through nickel commodities in Indonesia has not yet reached the downstream stage, but is only limited to smelterization.

Deputy Secretary of TPN Ganjar Mahfud, Hotasi Nababan said, the Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD camp set a 7 percent economic growth target if elected in the 2024 election. He said, one of the machines that was relied on to encourage economic growth was downstreaming.

For example, nickel commodity, Hotasi said, the downstream process from raw nickel ore to battery is still very long. Therefore, the value of what is happening now is not downstream but smelterization.

One of the machines rather than growth is downstreaming. So what kind of downstreaming? Take a nickel example. Nickel is a process of downstreaming to battery cells is still very long. What is there now, not downstreaming in our opinion, it is still smelting," he said at the event Dilima Downstream Mining: Limited or Expanded? in Jakarta, Thursday, January 25.

Housing also likens what is happening now to cooking rendang.

According to him, currently still in the boiling stage of meat.

"The smelter is still in the first stage of boiling the meat, not mixing complicated spices yet, not complicated mamasak," he said.

Furthermore, Hotasi said, to achieve downstreaming this requires innovation and research. In fact, forcing investors to share their technology in order to reach the stage of making batteries.

"We need hard work for innovation, research is a bit forcing investors to share their technology so that we get to the right (battery cell)," he said.