Looking at the electric vehicle track in Southeast Asia, a major supply chain transformation is quietly unfolding in Indonesia. A nearly $6 billion full chain investment has landed, which is about to overturn the battery market pattern long dominated by Japanese and Korean companies.

The full chain factory will start production in July

The Southeast Asian new energy market has received heavy news, and CATL's Indonesian power battery factory will officially start production at the end of July 2026. The total investment of the project is 5.9 billion US dollars, covering the entire industry chain of nickel ore, smelting, battery cells, and recycling, and may reconstruct the regional new energy supply chain led by Japan and South Korea.

The factory is located in Karawang, West Java, with Chinese shareholders holding 70% and Indonesian state-owned enterprises holding 30%. 90% of the project has been completed and trial production has begun; The first phase has a production capacity of 6.9 GWh, and the total capacity after expansion is 15 GWh, which can support 250000 new energy vehicles. The orders of major car manufacturers have been locked in advance and can be fully produced once put into operation. Local gathering of domestic car companies such as BYD, Wuling, Chery, etc., and nearby supporting facilities can significantly reduce logistics and warehousing costs.

Closed loop layout source control material

CATL has established six joint ventures with local Indonesian companies to connect the entire lithium battery industry chain. Upstream nickel ore, nickel iron smelting, and hydrometallurgy projects are being implemented in batches, with self-sufficiency in core raw materials for ternary batteries; The downstream supporting positive electrode material factory and the battery recycling base that will be put into operation in 2031 achieve metal recycling. This layout is in line with Indonesia's mineral deep processing policy, changing the old model of only exporting low-priced raw ore locally, and achieving a win-win situation for both the enterprise and Indonesia.

Multidimensional advantages conceal challenges

The three core advantages of the project are: control over high-quality nickel resources in Indonesia and smoothing fluctuations in raw material prices; Provide nearby domestically produced trams for overseas travel, relying on ASEAN duty-free radiation to multiple Southeast Asian countries; As an overseas buffer capacity, it can avoid trade barriers between Europe and America and alleviate domestic production capacity competition pressure. Japanese and Korean manufacturers only focus on battery cell assembly, with incomplete industrial chains and significant differences in competitiveness. The project drives local employment, cultivates local lithium battery talents, and provides a model for domestic lithium battery enterprises to go global. At the same time, there are hidden dangers in the project: Indonesia's policies are constantly changing, there is a shortage of local technical talents, peers continue to intensify competition, and weak infrastructure in nickel mining areas restricts the transportation of raw materials. Keywords:Foreign construction news network,Southeast Asia engineering information network,Overseas engineering construction,Foreign engineering construction news

The production of the battery cell factory in July 2026 is just the beginning, and subsequent upstream and downstream projects will be gradually implemented. This is not simply expanding overseas production, but a long-term strategic layout for reshaping the lithium battery supply chain in Southeast Asia.Editor/Gong Ziwei