Jokowi optimistic of SGAR reducing aluminum imports

Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) expects that the Smelter Grade Alumina Refinery (SGAR) operation by PT Borneo Alumina Indonesia can reduce the country's dependence on aluminum imports.

"The current domestic demand for aluminum is 1.2 million tons, and we import 56 percent of it. We have the raw materials, but we import 56 (percent) of it," the president stated at the launch of the first bauxite injection in SGAR in Mempawah, West Kalimantan, on Tuesday.

As monitored from here via a live Presidential Secretariat broadcast on YouTube, the president remarked that Indonesia lost around Rp50 trillion (or around US$3.2 billion) of foreign exchange due to aluminum imports.

Meanwhile, the head of state praised the SGAR phase I operation, with a total investment value of Rp16 trillion, or around US$1.05 billion.

"I am very happy that the upstream to downstream ecosystems of this integrated aluminum industry is complete during the first phase," the president remarked.

The SGAR project is carried out under collaboration between PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) and state mining company PT Antam.

Quoted from the inalum.id page, SGAR began construction in 2020 in Mempawah District, West Kalimantan, or located about 100 km from Pontianak City, the province's capital.

With its operation, the alumina smelter will connect the supply chain between bauxite, the ore of aluminum, and Inalum. After being processed, the alumina products will be distributed through state-owned port company Pelindo's Kijing Port.

Bauxite is the main raw material for alumina products. Indonesia has the sixth-largest bauxite reserves in the world.

PT Antam will mine bauxite directly using a modern and green approach. The mining site is 30 km from the smelter.