The latest move in the Indonesian government’s intention to develop domestic manufacture of electric vehicle batteries has seen a shareholders agreement for the Indonesian Battery Corporation (IBC).
The agreement was signed on 16 March by state mining firms Mining Industry Indonesia (MIND ID) and Aneka Tambang (ANTAM) along with state utility Perusahan Listrik Negara (PLN) and state oil company Pertamina.
“We hope the Indonesian Battery Corporation, as a holding company, can be formed in the first semester of this year,” deputy minister of State-Owned Enterprises Pahala Mansury told a virtual press conference.
The holding company aims to produce 8-10GWh per annum, starting within the next two years.
Last year, BEST reported that IBC intends to be involved in the entire battery production processes from battery materials to the manufacturing of cells and end-of-life battery recycling.
The company is in talks with CATL and LG Chem to invest in the region of $12 billion to develop the supply chain.
Indonesia will focus on developing lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) and lithium cobalt nickel aluminium oxide (NCA) batteries— two of the main chemistries used in EVs due to their high energy density.
The goal of the state-owned-enterprises (SOE) is to develop an end-to-end domestic supply chain for EV batteries as part of enabling the country to develop its own EV industry. The batteries will also be used in the development of the energy storage industry as the country has committed to green energy.
Indonesia’s battery demand is forecast to grow to 5.9GWh in 2027.