Giant Copper Factory Opens EV-Cable Business Opportunities
- 2023-03-06
- Posted by: Widyadhana Mufida
- Categories: Commodities, News
PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) is building a copper processing plant (smelter) at JIIPE Gresik, East Java. This smelter is estimated to be able to process up to 1.7 million tons of copper concentrate per year. This makes it the largest single-line copper processing smelter in the world.
Reported by cnbcindonesia.com, this large amount of production opens up business opportunities for the cathode absorber industry. Starting from the cable industry to electric vehicles in the country. This smelter will start operating around May 2024.
“We really hope that with the construction of this second copper smelter which is the largest in the world for single lines and other products, such as gold bars and silver bars. It is hoped that the downstream manufacturing industry can emerge in the country,” said PTFI President Director Tony Wenas (3/3/2023).
Downstream Program Progress
Apart from copper, mining commodities in Indonesia have also participated in the downstream processing program. Among them are nickel, tin, and aluminum. So that the downstream program can encourage the development of the electric vehicle battery ecosystem in Indonesia.
“So if we look at this downstream plan, what the government is planning is the ecosystem of EVs, especially batteries. These batteries will require graphite, in Indonesia there is a lot of it. From aluminum, nickel, copper, steel, and several other minerals, which are manganese as well as cobalt as well. These are all available in Indonesia and this is also carried out by the downstream program,” he continued.
Tony assessed that the electric vehicle battery ecosystem proclaimed by the government is very likely to be realized. This is supported by several regions in Indonesia that have been targeted by investors. One of them is the area of Kalimantan.
“So this EV ecosystem launched by the government will be very possible and very good for Indonesia. So when people around the world talk about electric vehicle batteries they think about Indonesia. We can see that in Kalimantan the investment has started. Then in several places the big manufacturers have started investment in Indonesia,” said Tony.