National Ceramics Industry Under Pressure: Gas Crisis, Costs, and Import Threats

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The national ceramics industry is facing heavy pressure at the start of 2026. This includes disruptions to gas supplies, surges in energy costs, and the threat of import floods from China and India. All these factors are assessed to be eroding the competitiveness of the sector. The figure deviates from the 80 percent utilisation target and is even slightly lower than the 2025 realisation of 73 percent. General Chairman of Asaki, Edy Suyanto, revealed that the decline is mainly triggered by gas supply disruptions from PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) in West and East Java regions. In fact, several ceramics industries in East Java were forced to halt production operations for about one week in January 2026 due to this supply crisis. Not only that, the situation is further worsened by the reduction in certain industrial gas allocation (AGIT) and the increase in gas surcharge prices. He noted that the average AGIT in West Java throughout 2025 only reached 67 percent, down from around 79 percent in 2024. The worst condition occurred in February 2026 with AGIT plummeting to 49 percent. This decline directly impacts the surge in gas prices to 10–10.5 US dollars per MMBTU in West Java and around 8 US dollars per MMBTU in East Java. As a result, the proportion of energy costs in the ceramics industry’s production cost structure has jumped to 33-35 percent. In contrast, when the Certain Natural Gas Price (HGBT) policy was implemented in 2021, energy costs were once suppressed to 25-27 percent.