Going east. More industrial parks have been developed in Central and East Java in the past few years to take benefit from improved infrastructure and lower average wages than peers in West Java, which remains the largest manufacturing base in the country.

Twenty seven years ago, I landed at Mangkajang airstrip in Berau Regency for inauguration of PT Kiani Kertas, the first pulp factory in Kalimantan, by then president Soeharto. Months earlier, Soeharto issued a decree for the provision of Rp250 billion loans to help out PT Kiani Kertas, which was owned by his golf buddy Bob Hasan. 

Google has reportedly decided to build US$1 billion data centre in Thailand. In late August 2024, global media outlets reported that the tech giant also considered Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam as potential location for a hyper scale data centre. 

Nickel has been hovering above US$17,000 per ton in the past few days as China, currently the world’s largest market for electric vehicle (EV), will likely continue to support the growth. The commodity, however, will unlikely return to high-price environment due to correction in other markets, particularly Europe.

Almost all big names of tire manufacturers have local manufacturing presence in Indonesia. Some players might have left the country, but others keep coming to tap the growth opportunities. Two Chinnese tire manufacturers, ZC Rubber and Sailun Group, are among those trying to take on the market competition.

Steel price recovered slightly Wednesday as market participants responded positively new incentives from China and reports about lower output in some major producing countries. Still, the key construction and machinery material is way below the same period last year.

Compared to peers, state mining companies (INALUM and Aneka Tambang) have been very slow in adding value to the bauxite ore resources. Aneka Tambang (ANTM) was actually the first to build a chemical grade alumina (CGA) refinery, but even one decade after its first commercial operation the so-called Tayan CGA yet to make money.

Conch Group, one of the world’s largest construction material producers based in China, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian government to pour in US$5 billion for the development of cement factories with ultimate design capacity of 25 million tons per annum in November 2011. The first plant, in South Kalimantan province, entered commercial production in late 2014.

Outgoing president Jokowi has repeatedly reminded the country about the importance of developing downstream/processing industry for seaweed, including for the production of biofuel. Acknowledged as the second largest producer of seaweed in the world, the incoming president Prabowo Subianto is expected to do more on that commodity.

Shares of Chandra Asri (TPIA), the largest petrochemical company in Indonesia, ended lower by 3.5% on Wednesday (Sep 11), but its market cap (Rp774 trillion) was 770 times of second largest polyethylene producer PT Lotte Chemical Titan Tbk (FPNI).