"Investors, question whether the export taxes will remain the same as they are today, in addition to other investment related regulations," he said, adding that a huge market alone would not be sufficient to draw new investment into the downstream palm oil industry. However, those derivatives are primarily exported because the surfactant industry has not been well developed, with only a small number of players operating the facilities, including Musim Mas and German-based Evonik.Ĭhairman of the Indonesian Oleochemical Manufacturers Association (Apolin), Togar Sitanggang, pointed to inconsistent policies as being one of the factors that continued to discourage investment. Palm oil-based oleochemical, along with other products such as fatty acid and fatty alcohol, has increasingly been used to produce surfactants. The export taxes, which are lower for processed products, are now under review by the Industry Ministry and open for revision in a bid to further attract much needed investment to expand the domestic palm oil industry. These investments are part of the Rp 24 trillion ($2.06 billion) that has been channeled to the Southeast Asia's largest economy since the new progressive export taxes, encouraging local processing and investment, were applied in late 2011. PT Unilever Oleochemical Indonesia (UOI), a subsidiary of consumer goods giant Unilever, has built a refinery to convert palm oil into oleochemical in Sei Mangke, North Sumatra, with investment totaling US$133 million.Īnother consumer goods giant, P&G, is building a similar facility in the special industrial zone, while Indian-based refiner WF is finalizing its fatty acid refinery in Medan, North Sumatra.
"We have the potential to serve as the manufacturing base "for surfactants, but we are not yet in an optimal position to develop the product, despite the huge potential," Panggah said. Surfactant is a chemical compound used in detergents, soaps and cosmetics. The main potential lay in the surfactant industry, which could nearly triple added-value of crude palm oil (CPO), according to the Industry Ministry's director general for agriculture and chemical industries, Panggah Susanto. Supported by favorable export taxation to attract investment, Indonesia, the world's largest palm oil producer, has the potential to become the production base for several downstream palm oil products, stakeholders say.
0 kommentar(er)
