About 15 years ago, Forest Gregg, a designer for Frybid (vegetable oil conversion company), published a book titled ‘Powering Your Vehicle with Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO)’, highlighting the benefits of the product: cheap, carbon-neutral, uses a waste product, and does not depend upon centralized corporate infrastructure.

Indonesian online travel app Pegipegi announced to stop its services as of December 11 after surviving almost 12 years in Indonesia. The company, however, did not disclose the reasons for the closure of its services. 

Morowali, Weda Bay, and Obi Island have developed themselves as new industrial areas even though they were not initially classified as special economic zones (SEZs). Thanks to nickel, these areas have become new export bases. The same applied to new economic centers in bauxite-rich provinces. 

Indonesia’s tech startups are reeling in big money in seafood farming since the country has a huge potential for seafood farming. An aquatech startup, Jala, has recently raised US$13.1 million in a series A round led by Intudo Ventures with the participation from Sinar Mas Digital Ventures as well as existing investors Mirova and Meloy Fund. 

After more than one decade of waiting, smelter grade alumina (SGA) in Mempawah, West Kalimantan province is finally moving in the right direction to completion. This will become the third SGA for Indonesia, which has banned export of bauxite ores this year. 

Weaker global demand and flood of imported products in domestic market forced Indonesian textile and garment producers to report substantially lower revenues and margins in the first nine months of 2023. This, unfortunately, might go on until the end of next year.

Shares of Chandra Asri (TPIA), the country’s largest petrochemical company, ended lower by 2.34% to Rp2,920 on Wednesday (Nov 15), while Lotte Chemical Titan (FPNI), the second largest polyethylene (PE) producer behind Chandra Asri, ended slightly lower by 0.51%. 

Foreign affairs minister Retno Marsudi revealed US$25.85 billion of investment commitment by US companies in Indonesia, including two projects from ExxonMobil and Freeport Indonesia with combined investment of US$5 billion.

Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman recently stated that the government plans to develop a sugar factory sitting on 1 to 2 million hectares of land in Papua, with the initial development planned for 200,000 hectares of land.

China, the world’s second largest automotive market, reported 37.5% jump year-on-year for new energy vehicle (NEV) sales to make a market share of 37.4% in October. The gap between electric vehicles (EVs) and combustion engine cars narrowed to a point of no return.