CATL positions itself for cell production in Indonesia - electrive.com

A subsidiary of the Chinese battery giant CATL has founded a joint venture with the state-owned Indonesia Battery Corporation (IBC) in order to drive forward the establishment of battery cell production in the country. The plans have been maturing for some time: both sides already know each other from previous cooperations.

According to various news agencies, the new joint venture is planning to invest up to 1.18 billion dollars (up to 1.09 billion euros) in a factory in Karawang in West Java. The partners are aiming to produce battery cells with an annual capacity of 15 GWh. According to Reuters, production is scheduled to start in 2027.

The CATL subsidiary is a unit called CBL International Development. On the other side of the joint venture is IBC – a state-owned company that aims to establish a battery supply chain for electric vehicles in Indonesia. Domestically, IBC is often referred to as Industri Baterai Indonesia (IBI). The close cooperation between the two sides does not come as a surprise: CATL has been associated with a battery factory in Indonesia since the end of 2020.

The government there is very keen to attract investment from the eMobility sector, as Indonesia is home to a large proportion of the world’s nickel reserves. The government in Jakarta not only wants to develop these raw material deposits, but also establish the subsequent value creation via nickel processing, cathode materials, battery production and also vehicle plants in the country. In the summer, for example, Hyundai and LGES commissioned a battery cell factory in Indonesia, and Hyundai also opened a vehicle plant there in 2022.

In the same year, CATL announced a tripartite agreement between its own subsidiary Brunp and IBC and Antam, part of the Indonesian state-owned mining company Mind. In the course of this, CATL announced that it would invest the equivalent of almost 5.5 billion euros in Indonesia, with the corresponding projects primarily covering the areas of nickel mining and processing, battery materials, battery production and battery recycling.

reuters.com, bnnbloomberg.ca

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