Production of heavy equipment in Indonesia fell 23 percent (y/y) to 4,100 units in 2015 due to the weak conditions in the mining and agriculture sectors. Traditionally, most of heavy equipment sales occur in these two sectors. Weak demand caused utilization of the nation's installed production capacity for heavy equipment to fall to 41 percent in 2015 from 51 percent in the preceding year. When fully utilized Indonesia can produce an estimated total of 10,000 units of heavy equipment per year.

Read more ›

The push for government-led infrastructure development across Indonesia, which started from mid-2015, is expected to cause rising cement sales in Indonesia in 2016. The Indonesian Cement Association (ASI) expects to see a 5 percentage point growth in Indonesian cement sales to 64.5 million tons this year (from an estimated 61.5 million tons in 2015). However, ASI Chairman Widodo Santoso emphasized that a delay in government spending could jeopardize achieving the sales projection.

Read more ›

Although Indonesian President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo pledged to boost infrastructure development across Indonesia, government spending on infrastructure projects was sluggish during his first year in office due to budgetary and organizational reforms (including cutting the energy subsidies). A positive sign, however, is that government spending on infrastructure development and the number of groundbreaking ceremonies for infrastructure projects rose in the second half of 2015 as reforms were completed.

Read more ›

Although the Indonesian government's target of welcoming 20 million foreign tourists by 2019 seems highly ambitious given that Indonesia may fail to achieve its target of seeing 10 million foreign visitor arrivals in 2015, several analysts claim that this target is too low. They believe that the target should be raised to 33 million foreign visitors, earning USD $40 billion in foreign exchange, hence replacing crude palm oil as the country's leading foreign exchange earner. However, this new target would only be possible if the government is serious about developing its 10 designated tourist destinations.

Read more ›

Cement sales in Indonesia climbed 4.7 percent (y/y) to 6.1 million tons in November 2015 supported by rising cement sales in all regions apart from the Moluccas and Papua. Widodo Santoso, Chairman of the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI), said domestic cement demand rose sharply in November despite seeing some rainfall (which usually leads to delays in development of infrastructure and other construction projects). Santoso says this rise is due to improved government spending on infrastructure projects.

Read more ›

Land acquisition remains a major obstacle to infrastructure development in Indonesia. Full-scale construction of the USD $4 billion Batang plant, a 2 GW coal-fired power plant in Central Java, is waiting for the final ruling of Indonesia's Supreme Court near the year-end. This court case is an important one as it will be the first court case to test Indonesia's Law No.2/2012 on Land Procurement for Development in the Public Interest (known as the 'Land Acquisition Act'). The Batang plant is a public-private partnership (PPP) project.

Read more ›

In its latest Indonesia Property Watch report, Fitch Ratings states that housing demand in Indonesia remained weak in the third quarter of 2015, leading to property developers' decision to postpone a number of new projects. Low commodity prices and high inflation (up to Q3-2015) led to sluggish demand and tepid economic growth in Southeast Asia's largest economy. Fitch Ratings said residential property price growth in Indonesia continued to slow for the eight consecutive quarter and believes prices are to remain muted in the coming year.

Read more ›

On 22 November 2015, 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 over the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economic matters such as updates on Indonesia's trade balance, the interest rate environment, infrastructure development, global bonds, IPOs on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, Islamic banking, and much more.

Read more ›

Indonesian publicly-listed construction firm Adhi Karya is expected to be one of the main beneficiaries of the government's push for infrastructure development across the archipelago. Adhi Karya is for 51 percent government-owned and therefore has close ties with the government. In the first ten months of 2015 Adhi Karya clinched IDR 10.6 trillion (approx. USD $774 million) worth of new contracts, up 100 percent from contracts won in the same period last year. Nearly half of these contracts involve projects (partly) financed by the central or local governments' budgets.

Read more ›

The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) expects the country's economic growth to come in the lower end of its 4.7-5.1 percent (y/y) gross domestic product (GDP) growth target range for full-year 2015. Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo expects to see accelerated economic growth in the last quarter of the year (from the preceding quarter) due to increased government spending and investment. In the second quarter of 2015, Indonesia's economy expanded at the slowest pace in six years (+4.67 percent y/y), then accelerating to 4.73 percent (y/y) in the following quarter.

Read more ›

One of the toll roads that is high on the Indonesian government's priority list is the Balikpapan-Samarinda toll road in East Kalimantan. The project is part of the government's quest to boost infrastructure development, thus reduce the nation's high logistics costs and make local businesses more competitive. However, as with every big infrastructure project in Southeast Asia's largest economy, there are bottlenecks that have caused a significant delay.

Read more ›

From Hamburg (Germany) where he visited the G-20 summit, Indonesian President Joko Widodo instructed his cabinet to increase efforts to attract investment into Indonesia. Now Indonesia recently obtained the investment grade status from all important global credit rating agencies, it should make Indonesia a more attractive investment destination for foreigners, including institutional investors such as pension funds.

Read more ›

Angkasa Pura I, the state-owned firm that provides airport management services in the central and eastern region of Indonesia, offers foreign and domestic private investors the opportunity to operate and develop several airports (in cooperation with Angkasa Pura I) across Indonesia: the Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Airport in Sepinggan (Balikpapan, Kalimantan), Lombok Praya Airport on Lombok, and - in the pipeline - Kulon Progo Airport in Yogyakarta (Java).

Read more ›

Six new 'special economic zones' (in Indonesian: kawasan ekonomi khusus, or KEK) should become operational in Indonesia soon. These six KEKs are: (1) Bitung, (2) Palu, (3) Tanjung Api-Api, (4) Mandalika, (5) Morotai, and (6) Maloy Batuta Trans Kalimantan. Indonesia's special economic zones are designated areas that offer both foreign and local investors preferential regulatory and tax regimes, as well as - in theory - the availability of key physical infrastructure such as harbors and power plants that should attract foreign investment in these zones.

Read more ›

For Indonesian cement producers it is vital to maintain their market share amid ongoing difficult times. With Indonesia's total installed annual cement production capacity now being around 100 million tons, while domestic demand is only expected to reach 65 million in 2017, cement players are facing weak prices amid a big oversupply, while foreign demand for Indonesian cement is yet to grow. Meanwhile, due to the arrival of various new cement players in Indonesia in recent years, competition for market share has become increasingly fierce.

Read more ›

The controversial Batang power plant in Central Java is expected to be completed in 2020 now all land acquisition disputes have been resolved. This USD $4.2 billion power plant experienced a long delay as about a dozen of local farmers were reluctant to sell their land to the developers of the project. In February 2016 Indonesia's Supreme Court ruled in favor of the project developers. Indonesian President Joko Widodo is a supporter of this project.

Read more ›

Approaching the end of 2016 it is interesting to take a look whether the Indonesian government achieved its target in terms of infrastructure development. In this column we zoom in on toll road construction. Before 2016 started the central government - under the leadership of President Joko Widodo - targeted to see the construction of 136 kilometers of new toll roads this year. However, two weeks before the end of 2016 only 44 kilometers of new toll roads have been developed this year, achieving only 32 percent of the target.

Read more ›

Infrastructure is the artery of the economy. Blocked arteries are life threatening. Similarly, when there is a lack of adequate infrastructure within the economy (whether in terms of quality or quantity) the economy will run in a highly inefficient manner due to high logistics costs, uncompetitive businesses (as the costs of doing business rise significantly), as well as social injustice when, for example, it is difficult for part of the population to reach healthcare facilities, or, for children to reach a school.

Read more ›

Labuan Bajo, a small harbor town on the island of Flores in Indonesia's Nusa Tenggara region, is considered the "new Bali" due to its huge tourism potential. Blessed with beautiful and idyllic natural scenery (including beaches and offshore islands), foreign and domestic tourists will surely have a great experience. Although there are already about a dozen of high-class hotels (4 or 5 stars) and it is fairly well connected to other parts of Indonesia (through its Komodo Airport and port), the small fishing town remains underdeveloped for now.

Read more ›

Construction companies in Indonesia are expected to grow strongly, supported by the availability of many new construction contracts, in the second half of 2016. Particularly state-controlled construction firms are expected to benefit from the government's push for infrastructure development. The central government's budget for infrastructure development has risen significantly in recent years (see table below), while the government also tries to direct part of the funds that are generated through the tax amnesty program toward infrastructure development.

Read more ›