Indonesia Will Stop Importing Asphalt in Two Years

Industrial Raw Materials
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In two years, Indonesia will immediately stop importing asphalt. This was confirmed directly by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). He reasoned, currently Indonesia has asphalt deposits on Buton Island reaching 662 million tons.

Jokowi said that a few weeks ago he had visited Buton Island, and found that there were 662 million tons of asphalt deposits in the area.

President Jokowi said that 662 million tons of asphalt were previously processed on Buton Island, but the asphalt processing was stopped. Entrepreneurs tend to prefer imported asphalt because it is cheaper.

“95% of our asphalt is imported, even though we have a deposit in Buton of 662 million tons. This is true, I will give 2 years more time, stop importing asphalt, everything must be supplied from Buton Island,” said President Jokowi, Tuesday (11/10/2022).

With the cessation of asphalt imports, Jokowi said, this will be an opportunity for those who want to invest in Buton Island where the asphalt industry can be built immediately.

“The market is clearly domestic and part of it can be exported. Our needs are 5 million tons, if it’s 5 million tons per year, we still have 120 years to manage Buton asphalt,” said Jokowi.

Previously, Jokowi has also reiterated that he will ban exports of raw minerals such as tin, bauxite, and copper shortly. Previously, Jokowi had succeeded in banning the export of nickel ore.

Jokowi said that in the early days of the ban on nickel exports, many people commented that they did not agree and asked the government to be careful because the value of the country’s exports could plummet due to stopping the export of nickel ore.

in fact, after the ban on nickel ore exports was stopped and Indonesia promoted nickel downstream in the country to get export results with added value, the state’s revenue from nickel downstream exports increased.

“In the past, nickel exports were only raw, now there is a smelter industry. And we have to force it. In the past, our nickel was stopped crowded, anyone came to say that exports could plummet because of stopping nickel exports,” said Jokowi in the agenda of the UOB Economic Outlook 2022, Thursday (29/9/2022).

Jokowi noted, through the ban on nickel ore exports becoming exports through the downstream process, state revenues skyrocketed significantly from previously only US$ 1.1 billion or Rp 15 trillion in 2017 to US$ 20.9 billion or Rp 360 billion in 2017. 2021.

“Jumping from Rp 15 trillion to Rp 360 trillion, that’s just nickel. We will stop tin and copper later. Stop exporting raw goods again,” he said.

“Downstreaming should not take decades to sell commodities, now they have stopped but one by one, not at the same time,” said Jokowi.