Below is a list with tagged columns and company profiles.

Today's Headlines Infrastructure

  • Heavy Equipment Industry Indonesia Plagued by Low Commodity Prices

    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 ›

  • Cement Industry Indonesia in 2016: Growth on Infrastructure Push

    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 ›

  • Government of Indonesia Preparing 2016 Infrastructure Projects

    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 ›

  • Analysts: Indonesia Should Attract 33 Million Foreign Tourists by 2019

    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 Indonesia Climb 4.7% (y/y) in November 2015

    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 ›

  • Batang Plant: Test Case for Indonesia's Land Acquisition Act

    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 ›

  • Fitch Ratings' Indonesia Property Watch Report: Pessimistic View

    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 ›

  • Indonesia Investments' Newsletter of 22 November 2015 Released

    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 ›

  • Construction Firm Adhi Karya Thriving on Indonesia's Infrastructure Push

    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 ›

  • Bank Indonesia Expects GDP Growth at Lower End of Target Range in 2015

    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 ›

Latest Columns Infrastructure

  • Indonesia Posts Trade Surplus in April but Concerns about Economy Rise

    Indonesia posted a higher-than-expected USD $454.4 million trade surplus in April 2015. Previously, analysts predicted to see an April trade surplus of around USD $120 million. However, the USD $454.4 million trade surplus was smaller than the (revised) USD $1 billion trade surplus recorded in March. Moreover, the April surplus (the country’s fifth consecutive trade surplus) is primarily caused by a large drop in imports, signalling that Indonesia’s economic performance remains sluggish at the start of Q2-2015.

    Read more ›

  • Economic Update Indonesia: Stocks, Rupiah, Infrastructure & Economy

    Ahead of the release of Indonesia’s official first quarter GDP growth figure (scheduled to be released in the first week of May), Indonesian stocks fell and the rupiah depreciated (slightly) against the US dollar on the back of weak market sentiments that have plagued Indonesian markets over the past week. Most importantly, weaker-than-expected Q1-2015 corporate earnings reports of listed Indonesian blue chips have made market participants concerned that Indonesia’s economic slowdown has continued into the first quarter of 2015.

    Read more ›

  • Slowing Economic Growth Indonesia to Continue in Q1-2015?

    Within a couple of days Statistics Indonesia (BPS) is scheduled to release Indonesia’s GDP growth figure for the first quarter of 2015. Despite economic growth forecasts for full-year 2015 - both of the Indonesian government and international institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) - signalling a rebound from the five-year low of 5.02 percent (y/y) in 2014, various analysts expect to see further slowing economic growth in Q1-2015.

    Read more ›

  • Cement Industry Indonesia in 2015: Overview of the Main Players

    The year 2015 may be a good one for Indonesian cement makers. The Indonesian government under the leadership of Joko Widodo is eager to invest heavily in the country’s infrastructure as this is one of the main bottlenecks that blocks higher economic growth. In the Revised 2015 State Budget the central government set aside IDR 290.3 trillion (USD $22.3 billion) for infrastructure development. Surely, the country's large cement producers - Semen Indonesia, Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa, Holcim Indonesia and Semen Baturaja - will benefit from this.

    Read more ›

  • Bank Indonesia Press Release: BI Rate Maintained at 7.50%

    Indonesia’s central bank (Bank Indonesia) decided to maintain its benchmark interest rate (BI rate) at 7.50 percent, the deposit facility rate at 5.50 percent and lending facility rate at 8.00 percent. This interest rate environment is considered to be in line with the central bank’s ongoing efforts to push the country’s inflation figure within its target of 4±1 percent for 2015 and 2016, as well as to control the country’s current account deficit towards a healthier level at 2.5-3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the medium term.

    Read more ›

  • Government of Indonesia Cancels Construction Cilamaya Seaport

    The government of Indonesia decided to relocate the planned Cilamaya deep seaport project in West Java to a different location (possibly Subang or Indramayu) as the initially proposed location is too closely located to an oil and gas block operated by Pertamina Hulu Energi Offshore North West Java, a subsidiary of state-owned energy company Pertamina. Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that it would be dangerous to construct the seaport close to this block as there is a high likelihood that ships will hit oil and gas rigs.

    Read more ›

  • Asian Development Bank: Economy of Indonesia to Grow 5.5% in 2015

    The Asian Development Bank (ADB) released a report today (24/03) in which it discusses recent economic developments in Indonesia. According to the report, Indonesia’s economic growth is projected to accelerate over the two years ahead provided that the Indonesian government continues to implement structural policy reforms. Such reforms - which include the acceleration of infrastructure development, reduction of logistical costs, and enhancing budget implementation - should lead to an improvement of the investment climate.

    Read more ›

  • Manufacturing in Indonesia: Key to Boost Export Performance

    One of the key strategies to improve the economic fundamentals of Indonesia is to restructure and strengthen the country’s exports. This restructuring involves the transformation of Indonesian exports from being dominated by (raw) commodities to manufactured exports by developing downstream industries in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, including import substitution industrialization in order to curb the country’s demand for imported products amid Indonesians’ rising purchasing power.

    Read more ›

  • Economic Update Indonesia: What about Economic Growth in 2015?

    Although Indonesia’s economic growth slowed further in 2014, there is optimism that growth will accelerate in 2015 despite sluggish global economic conditions (curbing Indonesia’s export performance) and Bank Indonesia’s relatively high interest rate environment. Indonesia’s central bank has raised its BI rate several times over the past one and a half years in an effort to combat high inflation (caused by fuel price hikes), curb capital outflows ahead of US monetary tightening, limit the current account deficit and support the rupiah.

    Read more ›

  • Tourism in Indonesia: Record High Number of Foreign Visitor Arrivals

    The total number of foreign tourist arrivals to Indonesia in 2014 was 9.44 million, up 7.19 percent from the preceding year, meaning that the government target of welcoming 9.3 million foreign tourists last year was achieved. As usual, most foreign tourists entered Indonesia through the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, the most famous tourist destination in the world’s largest archipelago. During the whole year of 2014 a total of 3.71 million foreigners spent some time on Bali.

    Read more ›