662 Million Tonne Reserves Yet Still Importing: Minister of Public Works Accelerates Buton Asphalt Self-Sufficiency

Indonesia’s dependence on asphalt imports, reaching 1 million tonnes per year, will soon be reduced. The Ministry of Public Works (PU) is finalising strategic regulations to optimise the potential of natural asphalt on Buton Island, Southeast Sulawesi. This step is an effort towards self-sufficiency, targeted to begin operating in May 2026 alongside the issuance of a Ministerial Decree. Minister of Public Works, Dody Hanggodo, emphasised that this regulatory harmonisation is a form of replicating the success of the mandatory biodiesel policy from B10 to B30. “The process is already underway, hopefully it will be completed in the next one or two weeks. We will soon launch the A30 programme because technically this can be easily carried out by contractors without the need for major modifications to the asphalt mixing plant,” said Dody in response to Kompas.com in Jakarta on Friday (17/4/2026). Data from the Construction Materials and Equipment Information System (SIMPK) of the Ministry of Public Works records that Asbuton reserves reach 662 million tonnes. With such a large deposit, Indonesia actually has road material resilience for hundreds of years ahead. However, the reality on the ground shows that the utilisation of this material only reaches around 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes per year, in stark contrast to the import figures that burden the country’s foreign exchange. Asphalt and Road Pavement Expert, who is also a former Director of Technical Bina Marga at the Ministry of Public Works, Purnomo, reminded that the ambition for self-sufficiency must be accompanied by strict quality standardisation. According to him, the main problem with Asbuton so far has not been availability, but the inconsistency of the product that has not been fully verified on a massive scale. In addition, national asphalt production, especially processed Asbuton, still faces challenges in the quality verification stage on an industrial scale. “Without solid standardisation and independent quality supervision, the use of a 30 per cent mixture risks reducing the service life of national roads,” criticised Purnomo.