The first nickel sulfate plant in the country commences operations
An Indonesian nickel company, PT Halmahera Persada Lygend, a joint venture between Harita Group of Indonesia and Ningbo Lygend of China, early this month commenced the operation of the world's largest nickel sulfate plant, in Obi Island, North Molluccas Province. This event marked the vertical expansion of battery materials production in Indonesia. The first stage of battery materials production is in the form of processing the limonite nickel ores into mixed hydroxide precipitates (MHPs), which contain nickel oxide and cobalt oxide using the HPAL (High Pressure Acid Leaching) technology. The company had commenced its production of MHPs in June 2021.
The start of production of the nickel sulfate plant and cobalt sulfate by the company marked the first expansion of such an HPAL plant into the refinery process. The production from the plant will be further processed in a precursor plant for cathode materials and the production of battery cells for electric vehicles (EVs). Thus, this plant represents the strategic positioning of Indonesia into the supply chain of the global EV Industry. The capacity of the plant, 240 thousand tons of nickel sulfate, containing 54 thousand tons of pure nickel, makes the plant the largest nickel sulfate plant in the world at this moment.
The company, PT Halmahera Persada Lygend, is the business unit of PT Trimegah Bangun Persada Tbk, which launched its IPO on April 12 this year. This performance may be followed by other MHP producers such as Hua You Cobalt company or QNB Materials of Indonesia. In the meantime, LG Energy Solution of South Korea has also started the construction of a similar plant in Batang Industrial Park in Java, Indonesia, but will continue into the third stage, the precursor plant, and the fourth stage, the cathode materials plant, as an integrated industrial complex in that area.
In the meantime, Central Board of Statistics released its balance of trade report for May 2023. The trade balance registered a far smaller surplus than the previous month, at $436.5 million compared to the $3,936.5 million achieved in April. The total trade surplus for the first five months of 2023 stood at $16,483.9 million, 17% smaller than the $19,797.4 million achieved in the same period of the previous year.
Exports in May reached $21,716.3 million while imports were $21,279.8 million. Cumulative exports from January to May 2023 reached $108,061.5 million while cumulative imports for the same period were $91,577.6 million
The Central Board of Statistics also reported the Consumer Price Index for May, which showed inflation of 0.09%. With that monthly inflation, Y/Y inflation in May was 4.00%. While still above the target, the inflation rate has started to touch the inflation corridor of the Central Bank. Against that background, Bank Indonesia kept the benchmark rate constant at 5.75% at its policy meeting held on June 22, 2023.
Now read on...
Register to sample a report