CATL expands battery loops in Indonesia
CATL’s recycling subsidiary Brunp has entered into a partnership with Indonesian companies Antam and IBI. CATL wants to invest the equivalent of almost 5.5 billion euros in the Indonesia. The agreement focuses on nickel mining and processing, battery materials, battery manufacturing and battery recycling.
Brunp is one of two recycling companies that are responsible for more than 50% of all battery recycling business in China. Antam is part of Indonesia’s state-owned mining company Mind, while IBI is Industri Baterai Indonesia – a state-owned company that aims to establish a battery supply chain for electric vehicles in the country. Internationally, IBI is often referred to as the Indonesian Battery Coorporation.
Although the three company’s battery project will also include other locations in Indonesia, their joint activities will focus on a plant in the FHT industrial park of East Halmahera in Indonesia’s North Maluku province.
CATL has said that the project will further strengthen its presence in the battery industry, ensure the supply of upstream raw materials and resources, reduce manufacturing costs and promote the development of the battery recycling business.
At the end of last year, rumours were circulating that CATL was poised to invest five billion US dollars in a battery plant in Indonesia. The Chinese battery making giant has been busy in Indonesia since earlier in 2020. For the last few years, the Indonesian government has been attracting investment from the electric vehicle sector on the strength of the country’s significant nickel reserves. The government in Jakarta not only wants to develop these raw material deposits, but also to establish the subsequent value creation via nickel processing, cathode materials, battery production and also vehicle plants in the country. In the summer of 2021, it was announced that Hyundai and LGES would build a battery plant in Indonesia, Hyundai also opened its first Indonesian vehicle plant this spring.
“The Indonesia project is an important milestone for CATL as we expand our global footprint, and it will become an emblem of the everlasting friendship between China and Indonesia,” said Robin Zeng, founder and chairman of CATL. “We are fully confident in the development of the project in the future.”
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