ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – The United States company, Ford Motor Company, officially holds shares directly in the nickel battery raw material factory which will be built in Indonesia with PT Vale Indonesia Tbk. (INCO) and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co.
Ford now holds 8.5% of the shares in PT Kolaka Nickel Indonesia (KNI).
Vale Indonesia Corporate Secretary, Filia Alanda, said that KNI increased its issued and paid-up capital through the issuance of new shares in accordance with the shareholder decision dated December 21, 2023.
This action brought KNI’s authorized capital to 3.82 trillion rupiah, which was divided into 3.82 million shares with a value of 1 million rupiah each.
“Then, KNI’s issued and paid-up capital amounted to 1.04 trillion rupiah, which was divided into 1.04 million shares with a value of 1 million rupiah each,” said Filia in an information disclosure, quoted on Tuesday, December 26 2023.
After the transaction, now KNI’s share ownership structure is Huaqi (Singapore) Lte Ltd with 764,000 shares or the equivalent of 73.20%, Vale Indonesia with 191,000 shares or the equivalent of 18.30%, and Ford Motor with 88,716 shares or the equivalent of 8.5%.
Filia emphasized that this transaction is not a material transaction for the company, and is not an affiliate transaction that contains a conflict of interest.
As is known, KNI is a company established to manage the high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) factory in the Pomalaa Block, Kolaka, Southeast Sulawesi. This HPAL factory will process nickel ore supplied by INCO from the Pomalaa Block mine to produce nickel in the form of Mixed Hydroxide Precipitate (MHP).
This nickel product is considered to be low cost, and is used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries with nickel-rich cathodes.
Preliminary site preparation for the Pomalaa Block HPAL project has begun, and commercial operations of the HPAL plant will begin in 2026.
This collaboration will provide critical ingredients for the automotive industry’s shift to EVs, boost Indonesia’s EV manufacturing industry, and support Ford’s plans to deliver a production run rate of 2 million EVs by the end of 2026 and scale further in stages.
Overall, this HPAL project will require an investment of up to US$ 4.5 billion.
When the cooperation agreement was first signed on March 30 2023, Christopher Smith, Chief Government Affairs Officer of Ford Motor Company expressed his optimism in the capital participation agreement with Vale and Huayou.
“First, there are aspects in Indonesia that are an important part of creating an electric vehicle supply chain,” he said.
The next reason is that Indonesia has the largest nickel reserves in the world, an important material in electric vehicle batteries.
Thus, continued Smith, Ford’s decision to establish strategic cooperation with Vale and Huayou is very appropriate in meeting the need for nickel-containing EV components.
The Pomalaa Block HPAL plant is targeted to produce up to 120 kilotons MPH per year.
Within its framework, the nickel processing project will be a three-pronged one, along with separate supply agreements being developed with Ford and Huayou for precursor cathode active materials critical to lithium-ion battery manufacturing, collectively to be combined with Ford’s other nickel sources. (AT Network)
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