Summary: At a press conference that day, Bahlil Lahadalia, head of the Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board, said Indonesia had signed a memorandum of understanding with LG Energy Solution, a subsidiary of LG Chem, on the 18th of this month regarding an electric vehicle battery investment agreement worth $9.8 billion.
According to Cailian Press, Reuters reported on December 30, 2020 local time that Bahlil Lahadalia, head of the Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board, said at a press conference that day that Indonesia had signed a memorandum of understanding with LG Energy Solution, a subsidiary of LG Chem, on the 18th of this month for an electric vehicle battery investment agreement valued at $9.8 billion.
An LG Energy Solution manager confirmed the fact to Reuters but could not provide details or the specific transaction amount. According to Bahlil, under the memorandum of understanding, at least 70% of the nickel ore used by LG Energy Solution to produce electric vehicle batteries must be processed in Indonesia.
He said the agreement would make Indonesia the first country to successfully integrate the battery industry. "We signed a memorandum of understanding to build an integrated battery plant from upstream to downstream. From mines, smelters, precursors, cathodes, automobile manufacturing to recycling facilities, all will be built in Indonesia." He revealed that the projects would be built in North Maluku Province and Central Java.
At a time when "high nickel and low cobalt" has become a consensus in the battery industry, Indonesia, with its abundant nickel resources, has long been a strategic battleground.
Earlier, there were reports that Tesla would send a delegation to Indonesia in January next year to discuss potential investment in its electric vehicle supply chain. Subsequently, Indonesia's Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment Affairs said that CATL, another global power battery leader, plans to invest $5 billion in Indonesia to build a lithium battery factory (with LG Chem, a combined total of $14.8 billion, approximately 99.6 billion yuan), and the two parties agreed to ensure that 60% of nickel is processed into batteries in Indonesia.