BKPM: Bauxite Downstreaming Investment Soars 193% in Q2 2026
Minister of Investment and Downstream Industry and Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), Rosan Roeslani, said bauxite downstream investment realisation increased 193 per cent to Rp40.1 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, compared with Rp13.7 trillion in the previous quarter.
This figure made bauxite the commodity with the largest downstream investment realisation in the second quarter of 2026, displacing nickel, which had long dominated investment in the mineral processing sector.
“If we look at it, nickel is usually always at number one. Well, there is a shifting here — bauxite has become number one, because there are indeed several bauxite developments, carried out by both domestic and foreign players, so bauxite has taken first place after nickel for the first time,” Rosan said in an official statement received in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The figure exceeded nickel downstream investment, which stood at Rp29.4 trillion, followed by copper at Rp16.7 trillion, iron and steel at Rp13.2 trillion, silica sand at Rp4 trillion, and other commodities such as tin, gold, silver, cobalt, manganese, coal, Buton asphalt, and rare earth metals at Rp4.7 trillion.
Overall, downstream investment realisation in the second quarter of 2026 reached Rp152.7 trillion, up 5.7 per cent compared with the same period last year, contributing 29.8 per cent to total national investment realisation of Rp511.8 trillion.
According to Rosan, the increase in investment was driven by the construction of a number of bauxite processing and refining facilities (smelters) by both domestic and foreign investors.
He continued that this shift shows national downstreaming is developing more evenly and is no longer dependent solely on the nickel industry.
He said the increase in downstream investment not only creates added industrial value but also has an impact on labour absorption.
BKPM recorded that investment realisation from January to June 2026 absorbed 1,448,862 workers, an increase of around 15 per cent compared with the same period last year.
“And in the second quarter alone, labour absorption reached 742,263 people, up 5.1 per cent,” Rosan said.
One of the bauxite processing projects supporting the development of national downstreaming is the Smelter Grade Alumina Refinery (SGAR) Phase I in Mempawah, West Kalimantan, developed by the MIND ID Group through PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) together with PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam).
The facility has a production capacity of one million tonnes of alumina per year, requiring around 3.3 million tonnes of bauxite as raw material each year, in order to strengthen the national aluminium industry supply chain.