Indonesia’s Aneka Tambang sells shares of subsidiaries to world’s biggest EV battery company

INDONESIAN miner Aneka Tambang has sold shares worth a total of US$467.18 million in two of its subsidiaries, to a unit of the world’s biggest electric vehicle (EV) battery maker, China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL).

In a disclosure published late on Thursday (Dec 28), Aneka Tambang, known as Antam, said that it made the sales to Ningbo Contemporary Brunp Lygend (CBL) through the latter’s Hong Kong unit.

CBL is a holding subsidiary of CATL, according to its website.

The sales, which were completed on Thursday, mean that CBL controls 49 per cent of Sumberdaya Arindo; it also controls 60 per cent of Feni Haltim.

The sales are part of an agreement to set up joint ventures to develop an EV “ecosystem” in Indonesia, Antam said.

The agreement includes a plan to build a high-pressure acid leaching plant, to process nickel ore into materials that are used in batteries.

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The government of Indonesia, home to the world’s largest nickel reserves, has set an ambitious target of producing some 600,000 EVs by 2030. That would be more than 100 times the number sold in Indonesia in the first half of 2023.

Companies such as China’s Neta EV brand, Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors and South Korea’s Hyundai Motors have already invested in Indonesia’s burgeoning EV battery industry.

The country is also wooing EV makers Tesla and BYD.