Indonesian miners may be allowed to resume bauxite exports after a government official signalled that the Indonesian government is looking at relaxing its (raw) mineral export ban. This ban, implemented in January 2014, was introduced in an effort to boost domestic processing capacity, generate more revenue (by adding value to its mineral products) and enhance employment opportunities in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. However, amid the lack of domestic smelting capacity, the export ban has led to a plunge of exports.

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Ada berita buruk bagi perusahaan-perusahaan pertambangan batu bara di Indonesia. Pemerintah Indonesia berencana untuk menaikkan royalti batubara pada Maret 2015 dalam upaya untuk meningkatkan pendapatan dari sektor sumberdaya alam. Selain menaikkan royalti, Pemerintah juga akan melaksanakan sejumlah tindakan untuk meningkatkan pengawasan di sektor pertambangan batu bara (karena pengapalan batubara secara ilegal dan penghindaran pajak telah menjadi masalah besar). Rencana untuk meningkatkan hampir 100% royalti batubara diduga akan memberikan dampak sangat negatif bagi para penambang kecil dan perusahaan-perusahaan baru yang berfokus memproduksi batubara kalori rendah.

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The Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources signaled that the government may (again) decide to postpone full implementation of its ban on exports of raw mineral ores and concentrates as the country still lacks sufficient smelting capacity to produce value-added mining products. Through this export ban, stipulated by the 2009 Mining Law, the Indonesian government aims to enhance revenue generation in the country’s natural resources sector by forcing miners to produce and export value-added products instead of raw materials.

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Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources may revoke the Mining Business Permit (Izin Usaha Pertambangan, or IUP) of 4,643 local mining companies at the end of January 2015 as these companies still lack the clean and clear certificate (CnC) from regional authorities. This CnC certificate indicates that the mining company has no outstanding royalty and other tax debts, fulfilled its exploration and environmental commitments, has no property delineation issues and obtained the necessary forestry permits.

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On 14 December 2014, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website in the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economic matters such as the central bank’s interest rate policy, an update on palm oil, the middle income trap, November car sales, the performance of the rupiah exchange rate, legal matters regarding mining, and more.

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Due to a strike at Freeport Indonesia’s Grasberg mine in Papua, the company’s copper production has fallen by about a third thus leading to speculation that global copper prices may increase after having fallen almost ten percent in 2014. About one thousand workers of Freeport Indonesia have been on strike since the second week of October after a fatal accident at the end of last month. The workers request the sacking of around 50 managers at the subsidiary of US-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold.

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Coal exports from Indonesia are expected to decline in the remainder of 2014 as the Indonesian government implemented a new licensing system for domestic coal miners - the ‘Listed Exporter’ status (Indonesian: Eksportir Terdaftar, ET) - per 1 October 2014 in an effort to optimize monitoring of the coal mining industry (illegal coal shipments from Indonesia form a structural problem). This new legal framework has led to confusion among miners causing that not all miners have been able to obtain the necessary status to resume coal shipments.

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R. Sukhyar, Director General for Coal and Mineral Resources at the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, stated that the country is plagued by structural illegal coal shipments from coal-rich regions in Kalimantan and Sumatra. Sukhyar estimates that each year between 30 and 40 million tons of coal is exported illegally from Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Based on current coal prices, this would imply that USD $1.2 billion worth of coal is shipped illegally per year causing the government to miss out on royalties.

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Indonesia’s House of Representatives (DPR) has passed a new plantations bill that aims to maximize land usage and opens up Indonesia’s plantation sector to smallholders. However, the retroactive clause that would limit foreign ownership to a maximum of 30 percent (from 95 percent currently) was dropped from the final version. This clause was highly controversial and would have been a major obstacle for foreign companies engaged in Indonesia’s plantation sector (such as Golden Agri-Resources and Wilmar International).

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Although Deputy Governor of the central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia), Halim Alamsyah, said that the non-performing loan (NPL) level in Indonesia’s banking sector is currently safe at 2.24 percent (well below the five percent threshold which is considered safe), the institution has been monitoring the high level of NPLs in four sectors: construction, trade, mining and social services. The bank will study why the ratio has been growing - whether it is a temporary phenomenon or not - and search the correct policy approach to address this issue.

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Freeport Indonesia has requested for a recommendation from Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to obtain another six-month permit for the export of copper concentrate. The existing permit expires on 8 August 2016. Since Indonesia's ban on mineral ore exports was implemented in January 2014, Freeport Indonesia - subsidiary of US-based natural resources company Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc - has been required to obtain six-month permits in order to continue shipments of copper concentrate.

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There is few interest from the private sector to participate in Indonesia's oil & gas block tenders. Besides Indonesia's unconducive investment climate (that includes weak government management, bureaucracy, an unclear regulatory framework and legal uncertainty), low global petroleum prices have also managed to curb investors' enthusiasm. In a bid to entice private investors the Indonesian government has decided to change the concept for oil & gas tenders in 2016 from a fixed revenue split to an open bid split scheme.

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The bargaining over the 10.64 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia has begun. Whereas Freeport proposed a price of USD $1.7 billion, Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources says the stake is only worth USD $630 million. Due to Government Regulation No. 77/2014 on the Implementation of Mineral and Coal Mining Business Activities, Freeport Indonesia - the local unit of US mining giant Freeport McMoRan - has to divest a 30 percent stake (to an Indonesian party) gradually up to the year 2019. Currently, the central government already owns a 9.36 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia.

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According to the Association of Indonesian Processing and Refining Companies (AP3I), consumption of mineral ores in Indonesia will be solid starting from 2017 due to the start of operations of new smelters. Jonathan Handojo, Vice Chairman of the AP3I, says domestic consumption of nickel ore will reach 7 million tons in 2017, roughly the same amount of nickel ore that was exported in 2009 before the New Mining Law - which stipulates a ban on exports of mineral ore from Indonesia (per January 2014) - was revealed.

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West Kalimantan, South Sulawesi and South Kalimantan are the three Indonesian provinces that scored the worst in the Local Government Performance Index (in Indonesian: Indeks Kinerja Pemerintah Daerah, or IKPD). This index, compiled by Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), measures the degree of coordination and supervision within Indonesian provinces regarding policies and actions related to the prevention of corruption in the mining and energy sectors. The provinces that have the highest scores are Central Sulawesi and the Riau Islands.

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The government of Indonesia is yet to find a middle way between encouraging the development of processing facilities for the country's mining output and the relaxation of mineral ore exports. Based on Law No. 4/2009 on Mineral and Coal Mining (New Mining Law), exports of mineral ore should have been fully banned in 2014. However, due to the lack of domestic smelting capacity a last-minute regulation was signed in early January 2014 by former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that softened this ban.

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Chevron Indonesia Company (CICO) announced on Tuesday (19/01) that it will return all its oil and gas assets in the East Kalimantan block back to the Indonesian government on 24 October 2018. Without elaborating on why the company exits the East Kalimantan oil & gas block after having exploited this block for about 50 years, Chuck Taylor, Managing Director Chevron IndoAsia Business Unit, confirmed CICO will not seek extension of its production sharing contract after 2018.

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New funds obtained from a rights issue and the revaluation of its assets will have a positive impact on Aneka Tambang (Antam), a diversified mining company in Indonesia. The miner, majority-owned by the Indonesian government, is engaged in all activities ranging from exploration, exploitation, processing, refining to the marketing of nickel ore, ferronickel, gold, silver, bauxite, coal and precious metals refining services. However, its corporate earnings remained disappointing so far in 2015.

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A selection of corporate earnings reports (covering net profit and revenues in the first quarter of 2015) of Indonesian companies that are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) is presented by Indonesia Investments below. The companies are categorized by sector: (1) agriculture and mining, (2) basic industry and chemicals, (3) miscellaneous industry, (4) consumer goods, (5) property and real estate, (6) infrastructure, utilities and transportation, (7) finance, and (8) trade, services and investment.

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One of the weak points of Indonesia, one that seriously hurts the country’s investment climate as well as foreign confidence, is regulatory uncertainty. In 2009 the government of Indonesia introduced Law No. 4/2009 on Mineral and Coal Mining (New Mining Law) which caused a shock in Indonesia’s natural resources sector as it includes several new policies that make investors think twice before investing in Indonesia as the consequences of these new policies are far-reaching. However, a possible new amendment to the law causes new concern.

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