Timeline: Investments in Indonesia's nickel industry

Wuling Motors Holdings

06/02/2023 06:05

JAKARTA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Indonesia is courting Tesla
Inc  TSLA.O  to invest in the country, which has become a key
player in the electric vehicle industrythanks to its rich nickel
reserves. 
    In just three years, Indonesia has signed more than a dozen
deals worth more than $15 billion for battery materials and
electric vehicle production with global manufacturers including
Hyundai, LG and Foxconn. 
    Here are some of the major investment deals involving nickel
in Indonesia:     
    Jan. 2020: Indonesia bans exports of unprocessed nickel to
attract investment in downstream processing.       
    Dec. 2020: BASF  BASFn.DE  and Eramet  ERMT.PA  sign a joint
agreement to assess the development of a nickel and cobalt
hydrometallurgical refining complex which include a
High-Pressure Acid Leaching (HPAL) plant and a Base Metal
Refinery (BMR), that will produce EV battery materials. A final
investment decision may be made in 2023. 
    Dec. 2020: Indonesia's investment ministry signs an MOU with
LG Energy Solution  373220.KS  on integrated EV battery
investment with total investment of $9.8 billion.
    Mar. 2021: Indonesia establishes the Indonesia Battery
Corporation (IBC), a joint venture of state owned enterprises to
cooperate with foreign investors in developing an EV battery
supply chain.
    Sept 2021: South Korea's LG Energy and Hyundai Motor Group
 005380.KS  start construction of a $1.1 billion battery cell
plant to make batteries for EVs, the first stage of their $9.8
billion deal to develop integrated EV battery facilities.    
    Jan. 2022: Indonesia's Investment Ministry signs an MoU with
Foxconn  2317.TW , Gogoro Inc, IBC and Indika Energy  INDY.JK 
for investment in electric vehicle and battery development.
    Feb. 2022: A joint venture of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt
 603799.SS , Tsingshan Holding Group and China Molybdenum Co
 603993.SS  makes the first shipment of nickel mixed hydroxide
precipitate to China from Morowali, the biggest nickel
processing hub on Indonesia's Sulawesi island. 
    March 2022: Hyundai launches a plant in Indonesia to produce
battery-powered electric vehicles, its first in Southeast Asia. 
    April 2022: IBC and state mining company Aneka Tambang
 ANTM.JK  sign a framework agreement with China's biggest
battery manufacturer CATL Group, through its subsidiary Ningbo
Contemporary Brunp Lygent Co (CBL), for partnership spanning
from nickel mining and processing to EV battery manufacturing
and battery recycling. 
    June 2022: South Korea's LG Energy breaks ground on a $3.5
billion smelter with the capacity to produce 150,000 tonnes of
nickel sulfate per year in Batang, Central Java. It will also
build a $2.4 billion factory in the Batang park to produce
220,000 tonnes of precursor and 42,000 tonnes of cathode per
year. 
    July 2022: Vale Indonesia  INCO.JK  and China's Zhejiang
Huayou Cobalt sign an agreement with U.S. carmaker Ford Motor to
build a 120,000 tonnes mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) plant
in Southeast Sulawesi.         
    Aug. 2022: Production of an electric vehicle, Wuling Air, 
is launched in Indonesia. It is being built by SGMW Motor
Indonesia, part of a joint venture of SAIC Motor Corp Ltd
 600104.SS , General Motors Co  GM.N  and Wuling Motors
 0305.HK . 
    Sept 2022: Vale Indonesia signs an agreement with Zhejiang
Huayou to build a second plant to produce nickel MHP with 60,000
tonnes capacity.
    Nov 2022: Vale and Zhejiang Huayou start construction of
their 120,000 tonnes MHP facility in Southeast Sulawesi.
    Jan 2023: Indonesia's Aneka Tambang and Hong Kong CBL
Limited, a subsidiary of China's CBL, sign a conditional share
purchase agreement for partial ownership on Antams's nickel mine
in East Halmahera, North Maluku. 
    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ANALYSIS-Armed with nickel, Indonesia aims high in electric
vehicle industry     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N34I1OL
EXCLUSIVE-President Jokowi "confident" Tesla will invest in
Indonesia      urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N34G15E
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
 (Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy, Bernadette Christina Munthe;
Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
 ((Fransiska.Nangoy@thomsonreuters.com;))