Oleochemical Industry Continues to Make Progress

OLEOCHEMICAL industry in Indonesia has shown shown good progress in the last three years, with room for more companies. The number of companies has grown for 17 in 2016 to 20 companies in early 2019 with a total production capacity of 11.326 million tons per year. The progress report was presented at a seminar in Jakarta, Wednesday (3/6/2019), which included topical theme on industrial users of Indonesian oleochemical products. The seminar was organized by Indonesian Oleochemical Producers Association (Apolin) collaborated with Sawit Indonesia magazine and supported by the Indonesia Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS). It had a presence of several speakers: Chairman of Apolin Rapolo Hutabarat, Chairman of the Indonesian Tire Producers Association (APBI) Azis Pane, Head Division of Association of Indonesian Cosmetic Manufacturers (Perkosmi) Liandhjani, Head Section at the Ministry of Industry for Non-food Plantation Product Industries, and Chairman of the Indonesian Bioenergy Experts Association (IKABI) Tatang Hernas Soerawidjaja. Oleochemical is chemical that has been derived from fats and oils, including from palm oil. It is widely used in the home and personal care industries such as butters, soaps, cosmetics, etc. “As far as our concern, incentives policy, including tax allowances and tax holiday, combined with palm oil levy has made possible for oleochemical industry to grow,” Director General of Agro Industry at Ministry of Industry Abdul Rochim said at the opening speech. Rapolo Hutabarat told the participants that the industry has shown shown good progress. In 2016, there were only 17 companies in the industry with a total production capacity of 10,970,700 tons per year and Rp4.7 trillion in investment value. It increased to 19 companies in 2018 and in early 2019 has grown to 20 companies with a total production capacity of 11.326 million tons per year. The investment value increased to Rp4.84 trillion in early 2019. “In 2019, its production capacity included 4.55 million tons fatty acid, 2.12 million tons fatty alcohol, 887,700 ton glycerin, 1.93 million tons methyl esther, and 1.83 million tons soal noodle,” Rapolo said. Abdul Rochim added tha, oleochemical sector is one of the industries in Indonesia receiving tax allowances and tax holiday for new investment and industrial expansion. More than 10 projects have received tax incentives. ***