Jakarta – The government continues to develop the chemical industry as a strategic industry that plays an important role in national development. The industry is the basic capital for the development of downstream industries, such as the food and beverage industry, fabric fibers, textiles, packaging, plastic goods, electronics, automotive, and medicine.
The success of national industrial development is greatly influenced by the profile of the chemical industry. As a supplier of raw materials for downstream industries, the chemical industry sector is expected to have adequate capacity and have good and stable performance at all times.
“This is what encourages the government to continue to strengthen the chemical industry through increasing production capacity and completing the structure of the industrial tree in order to ensure the fulfillment of industrial raw material needs,” said Acting Director General of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Textile Industries (IKFT) of the Ministry of Industry Ignatius Warsito when representing the Minister of Industry at the inauguration of the expansion of PT Nippon Shokubai Indonesia’s 3AA factory in Cilegon, Banten, Tuesday (23/5/2023).
The importance of the chemical industry is shown by its large contribution to GDP. In 2022, the chemical industry is the third largest contributor to the non-oil and gas processing industry sector. Plt. Director General of IKFT said that this shows that chemicals are very strategic commodities and determine the direction of government policies, especially in the economic field.
For this reason, the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) appreciates PT Nippon Shokubai Indonesia (PT. NSI) for the expansion of investment made by PT NSI to become the only company in Indonesia and Southeast Asia that produces Acrylic Acid and Acrylic Esters, as well as the first and only Superabsorbent Polymer (SAP) producer in Indonesia.
Acrylic Acid and Acrylic Esters are intermediate chemicals whose utilization is very broad, including for raw materials in the emulsion industry, polymers and resins, acrylic fibers, and copolymer polyolefins. Meanwhile, SAP is used as an absorbent material in disposable baby diapers. Nippon Shokubai Group has 20 percent of the world market share for SAP products, making Nippon Shokubai Group the largest supplier of SAP in the world.
The investment in the third phase of PT NSI’s Acrylic Acid project in Cilegon, Banten shows that the development potential of the intermediate chemical industry is very large. With the addition of Acrylic Acid product capacity of 100 thousand tons/year, the total Acrylic Acid capacity of PT Nippon Shokubai Indonesia becomes 240 thousand tons/year. The addition of this production capacity contributes to maintaining domestic supply in anticipation of increasing domestic Acrylic Acid demand, as well as increasing the potential for export markets.
With a total investment value of USD693 million to date, PT NSI has been able to absorb skilled labor and open new employment opportunities. “We really appreciate and appreciate the investment in the expansion of the Acrylic Acid factory carried out by PT NSI which was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but finally it was successfully implemented,” said the Acting Director General of IKFT.
Furthermore, he said that the Ministry of Industry will continue to strive to create a good, profitable, and sustainable industrial business climate through various policies so that investment can continue to grow and Indonesia’s economic strength becomes strong. (InfoPublik.id/Photo: Special)
