The anode battery material factory in Kendal, Central Java, has just been inaugurated by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). The factory was built directly by a Chinese company, PT BTR New Energy Material.
The factory that was inaugurated is the first phase of construction with a production of 80 thousand tons of anode material per year. The investment itself reached US$ 478 million or around IDR 7.72 trillion. With this factory, the downstream ecosystem of electric vehicles in Indonesia is claimed to have begun to materialize.
“So, what we dream of is a large ecosystem of strong and integrated electric vehicles one by one, starting to appear,” said Jokowi when inaugurating the battery material factory in Kendal, broadcast virtually, Wednesday (7/8/2024).
Here are 3 advantages of the anode factory:
1. Built in Only 10 Months
According to Jokowi, BTR from China was able to build the factory in a very short time. It was only 10 months ago that the investment commitment was signed in Beijing, but now the factory has been successfully built in Indonesia. Jokowi said that the speed of this development is proof of Indonesia’s progress. According to him, a fast country will currently beat a slow country.
“I really appreciate the speed of this factory’s construction. It was only 10 months ago that we signed in Beijing, and suddenly the factory was finished,” said Jokowi.
According to Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto, who was also present at the inauguration of the factory, in China alone there is no factory that can be built in 10 months. This shows Indonesia’s speed in making industrial progress.
2. Use High-Value Waste
Although currently there are still many goods imported for the manufacture of battery anodes in Kendal, he is sure that this factory can be a leap for industry in Indonesia. Jokowi explained that the natural graphite used in this factory is still imported from Africa, but artificial graphite can already be produced from the Pertamina refinery in Riau. These two materials can be used as anode materials to make batteries.
The anode material itself is the main component of the formation of lithium batteries. The anode material acts as the negative axis in a battery, while the positive axis is the cathode. The cathode itself can be produced from nickel processing that has been carried out in Indonesia.
With the existence of a factory that produces anodes, if Indonesia wants to make a battery, it currently only lacks lithium. Lithium material itself can be imported from Australia. Then Indonesia also already has nickel that can be used as a cathode and precursor.
For information, artificial graphite is obtained from the processing of petroleum coke, which is a by-product of crude oil processing, you could say that petroleum coke is waste that has high value. Petroleum coke that is converted into artificial graphite is obtained directly from petroleum processing at the Pertamina Dumai Refinery, Riau.
3. Could Be 1.5 Million Electric Cars
According to Jokowi, the production of 80 thousand tons of anodes per year can be converted into around 1.5 million electric cars. If the PT BTR factory can operate fully, its production can reach 160 thousand tons of anodes, meaning that Indonesia can convert 3 million electric cars per year.
August 8, 2024, detikFinance
(https://finance.detik.com/industri/d-7478657/3-kelebihan-pabrik-anoda-china-di-kendal-yang-diresmikan-jokowi)