Commodities

Cepsa and Bio-Oils, subsidiaries of Apical (controlled by Sukanto Tanoto), are starting construction of the largest second generation (2G) biofuels by constructing the largest plant in southern Europe.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif said he had agreed the divestment price value for 14% shares of Nickel producer Vale Indonesia (INCO) at around Rp3,000 per share, below current market price or a discount price. INCO was traded at Rp3,690 on Friday last week (February 16), dropped 7.75%, to make market capitalization of Rp36.67 trillion. 

So, coordinating minister for the economy Airlangga Hartarto, who is chairman of Golkar Party, has become the first owner of Chery Omoda E5 in Indonesia. Airlangga, main supporter of Prabowo-Gibran, stated that the EV uses nickel-based battery. Zeng Shuo, assistant vice president of PT Chery Sales Indonesia, distributor of Omoda E5, however, dismissed Airlangga’s claim saying the EV uses LFP battery instead.

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has been investigating allegations of corruption related to the tin trading system carried out in the Mining Business License (IUP) area owned by PT Timah Tbk (TINS) since October last year. Far from media coverage, last week, the institution announced it had expanded its investigation and named a suspect in the alleged obstruction of justice. This week, the AGO finally announced that it had named two suspects in the predicate crime, one of whom is a relative to the initial suspect. This case allegedly involves at least five tin processing companies in the area.

Within less than a month after being officially appointed, nine commissioners of the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) for the 2023 – 2028 term of office have started working. The commission recently published their initiative to achieve their work targets for the first 100 days.

WTI crude futures fell further toward US$72 per barrel on Friday and are on track for an over 6% weekly drop due to fading expectations of immediate interest rate cuts in the largest global economy, influenced by U.S. jobs data, Tradingeconomics.com reported. Indonesia, meanwhile, is set to record highest investment commitment in the past seven years. 

Erick Thohir, minister of state-owned enterprises, who formally has joined the campaign of Prabowo-Gibran, talked a lot about green energy and greenflation recently. On Saturday, Feb 3, Thohir, whose brother Boy Thohir generates most wealth from thermal coal, said one of the solutions to boost Indonesia’s energy sufficiency is by developing ethanol from sugar. Seriously?

The biggest irony of all discussions surrounding nickel industry in Indonesia is the fact that state nickel producer Aneka Tambang (ANTM) has been lagging Chinese companies in adding value to the commodity. Worse, some of its lucrative assets have been handed over to CATL, the world’s largest EV battery manufacturer.