Indonesia launches China-built anode plant for EV batteries

By Fransiska Nangoy

JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia's President Joko Widodo on Wednesday inaugurated a plant built by China's BTR New Material Group and Singapore's Stellar Investment that will produce anode materials for EV batteries.

In the first phase, the companies invested $478 million in the plant that will produce 80,000 metric tons of materials per year, according to the Coordinating Ministry of Maritime and Investment Affairs. The production start date has not yet been announced.

Indonesia has ambitions to build a domestic electric vehicle industry, taking advantage of its rich mineral resources, especially nickel, an important material for battery cathode.

"Our decision several years back to develop a big EV ecosystem is starting to materialise in Indonesia, starting when we banned export of raw nickel in 2020," the president, who is widely known as Jokowi, said at the formal opening of the plant in Kendal, Central Java.

For the anode plant, BTR would process graphite products from its Indonesian Morowali plant.

BTR is expected to start construction of the second phase of the anode material plant in the fourth quarter this year, senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan said, to double capacity to 160,000 tons annually.

An additional $299 million will be invested to build the second phase, said He Xueqin, chairman of BTR New Material Group, which will put Indonesia among major global producers of anode upon its completion.

"Indonesia will become the second largest negative material producer in the world, second only to China. The local project will also fill the gap in Indonesia and even the entire ASEAN battery industry," he said.

Indonesia's moves have attracted some major battery and EV makers to invest in domestic production, including South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution which launched the country's fist battery cell production last month, integrated with Hyundai's plant where they will produce EVs with Indonesian-made batteries.

(Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by John Mair and Kim Coghill)