BASF and Eramet plan to spend as much as $2.6-billion building a nickel/cobalt refinery in Indonesia, expanding a wave of investment in the Southeast Asian nation aimed at feeding growing demand from electric vehicles (EVs).
The project, known as Sonic Bay, will produce about 67 000 t of nickel and 7 500 t of cobalt a year, Indonesia’s Investment Ministry said in a statement. The two companies expect to finalise an agreement on the plant in the first half of this year, the statement cites BASF CEO Martin Brudermüller as saying.
Indonesia aims to be a global hub for the EV supply chain and is already home to a swathe of projects — many of them Chinese-backed — to make battery-grade nickel. Tesla, and China’s BYD are finalising deals to build car plants in the country, a senior minister said on Tuesday.
The BASF-Eramet facility at Sonic Bay will produce nickel chemicals in a high-pressure acid leach plant, and total planned investment is estimated at $2.2-billion to $2.6-billion, according to the Indonesia statement. The planned location is at Weda Bay in North Maluku.