Jakarta (ANTARA) - Mohammad Faisal, Executive Director of the Center\nof Reform on Economics (CORE) Indonesia, believes the development of the\nbattery industry, such as in Morowali and North Morowali Regencies in\nCentral Sulawesi, has helped extend the national mineral value\nchain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we look at Morowali, more than 75 per cent of its economic\nstructure now comes from the industrial sector. Previously, more than\nhalf came from primary sectors such as mining and agriculture,\u201d Faisal\nsaid in a statement received in Jakarta on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
According to Faisal, more than 75 per cent of Morowali\u2019s economic\nstructure is currently supported by the industrial sector, a departure\nfrom the earlier situation when more than half of the region\u2019s economy\nrelied on primary sectors such as mining and agriculture.<\/p>\n
A similar change, he said, has occurred in North Morowali alongside\nrising investment activity and the growth of the mineral processing\nindustry in the area.<\/p>\n
This shows that downstreaming not only increases the value of\ncommodities after they are mined, but can also create new economic\nactivity bases and transform the economic structure of producing\nregions.<\/p>\n
Faisal noted that Indonesia\u2019s nickel downstreaming level in the\n2021-2022 period was still relatively early stage, as processing largely\nstopped at products such as nickel pig iron (NPI) and ferronickel.<\/p>\n
However, the nickel processing chain is now advancing towards higher\nvalue-added products, including materials for the battery industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut more recently it has reached batteries. This is something I\nthink deserves great appreciation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The change in economic structure has gone hand in hand with increased\neconomic activity in nickel-producing regions.<\/p>\n
According to data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the per capita\nGRDP of Morowali and North Morowali increased over the 2014-2024 period\nin line with the growth of processing industry activity.<\/p>\n
The next stage of nickel downstreaming is directed towards producing\nbattery raw materials, one approach being high pressure acid leach\n(HPAL) technology, which processes limonite ore into mixed hydroxide\nprecipitate (MHP).<\/p>\n
Aditya Farhan Arif, President Director of Indonesia Battery\nCorporation (IBC), said the growth of the national battery industry also\nhas the potential to extend the economic impact of downstreaming to\nmineral commodities beyond nickel.<\/p>\n
According to Aditya, around 23 per cent of the material required in\nbatteries is aluminium and around 18 per cent is copper.<\/p>\n
As such, the establishment of a domestic battery industry could\ncreate linkages with the industrial chains of both commodities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we have a battery industry that is sovereign, advanced, and\nindependent, we actually also have the opportunity to gain even greater\neconomic impact from other commodities, not only nickel,\u201d Aditya\nsaid.<\/p>\n
IBC is developing a battery industry chain ranging from battery\nmaterials to cells and battery packs, which can be used for, among other\nthings, electric vehicles and battery energy storage systems (BESS).<\/p>\n
BESS is needed, among other purposes, as an energy storage system to\nsupport various electricity needs, including data centre\nrequirements.<\/p>\n
These developments show that nickel downstreaming relates not only to\nincreasing the added value of a single commodity, but also to the\nformation of derivative industries, changes in regional economic\nstructures, and the creation of linkages with other domestic mineral\nindustry chains.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/analyst-battery-industry-extends-the-national-mineral-value-chain-1789480580", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }