Team Webmaster : President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) expects the operation of Smelter Grade Alumina Refinery (SGAR) PT Borneo Alumina Indonesia can reduce dependence on high aluminum imports.
“We know that the need for aluminum in the country is currently 1.2 million tons, 56 percent of which we import. We have the raw materials, we have the raw materials, but 56 (percent) of our aluminum is imported,” said the president in his speech when inaugurating the first bauxite injection of SGAR PT Borneo Alumina Indonesia Phase I, in Mempawah Regency, West Kalimantan province (Kalbar), Tuesday, witnessed through a YouTube Live broadcast from the Presidential Secretariat from Jakarta.
The president revealed that the country lost about Rp50 trillion in foreign exchange due to aluminum imports. Therefore, the head of State appreciated the operation of sgar Phase I which swallowed a total investment value of Rp16 trillion.
“We lost more than IDR 50 trillion in foreign exchange because we imported aluminum, and I am very happy that the ecosystem from upstream to downstream for the integrated aluminum industry has really been completed for its first phase,” said the President.
The SGAR project is a collaboration between PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) and PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) Tbk.
Quoted from Page inalum.id, SGAR began construction in 2020 in Mempawah Regency, West Kalimantan, about 100 km from Pontianak city.
Once operational, the alumina smelter will link the supply chain between the bauxite ore mineral (West Kalimantan) and the aluminum smelter (Inalum). After completion, alumina products will be distributed through Kijing Pelindo Port.
Bauxite is the main raw material of alumina products to be produced by the smelter. Indonesia has the 6th largest bauxite reserves in the world. The commodity will be mined directly in a modern and green mining by PT Antam Tbk in West Kalimantan, 30 km from the smelter.