The Indonesian government’s dream of managing natural resources from the earth’s content to the final product, known as downstreaming, has started to become a reality in Morowali Regency, Central Sulawesi.
In the giant industrial area owned by PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP), there are 54 companies involved in nickel management. Raw material in the form of ore, which comes from mining companies throughout Indonesia, is processed here into various metal and mineral elements.
The result of nickel ore extraction is then processed into 25 different commodities, including Nickel Pig Iron (NPI), Carbon Steel, Stainless Steel Slab, Steel HRC, MHP, Stainless HAPL, Electrolytic Aluminium, Stainless Steel CRC, Graphite, Lithium Hydroxide, Meyyalurgical Coke, Electrolytic Nickel, Coal Tar, Ferrochrome, Crude Benzene, Electrolytic Manganese, Ammonium Sulfate, Battery Recycling, Ferrosilicon, Lithium Carbonate, and Sulfuric Acid.
These products, both steel and non-steel, are exported overseas, including to China and Europe. Processed steel from IMIP is the main raw material for aircraft, trains, cars, and furniture.
“The average cold roll coil is exported abroad, including to China and Europe. This product from IMIP is the raw material for planes, trains, cars and furniture,” Director of Operations of PT IMIP, Irsan Widjaja, told the visiting editors-in-chief of Central Sulawesi media as quoted by kabarselebes.id on March 8, 2024.
Meanwhile, non-steel products such as graphite, lithium hydroxide, metallurgical shuttle, electrolytic nickel, coal tar, ferrochrome, crude benzene, electrolytic manganese, ammonium sulfate, and sulfuric acid are also produced at IMIP.
Currently, two plants at IMIP have been operating to produce non-steel materials, namely PT Huayue Nickel Cobalt and PT QMB New Energy Materia.
Both factories produce cathodes for electric car batteries, with a production capacity of 70,000 tons of nickel cobalt (Ni-Co) per year and 50,000 tons of nickel sulphide and nickel cobalt (Ni-Co) per year, respectively.
In 2024, IMIP plans to build a battery factory in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, as a concrete step in realizing nickel downstreaming.
“In 2024, through investors from China, a battery factory will be built at IMIP. God willing, it will be operational in 2025,” said Head of Media Relations Division of PT IMIP, Dedy Kurniawan, in accompanying a number of media at the IMIP location.
Thus, nickel downstreaming at PT IMIP is not only a hope, but also an encouraging reality for Indonesia in utilizing natural resources optimally and sustainably.
