Pupuk Kaltim (PKT), the largest urea producer in Southeast Asia, is keen on identifying significant market potential and continuous innovation for food security. In addition, PKT is also diversifying its business focus towards environmentally friendly value-added products through the development of a soda ash plant. Soda ash is a crucial raw material component in people's daily lives. However, Indonesia still relies on imports to meet the demand for soda ash. In fact, in 2022, data showed that soda ash imports for domestic needs reached 916,828 metric tons per year and are projected to continue increasing to 1.2 million metric tons per year by 2030. As the largest urea fertilizer producer in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, PKT sees this positive opportunity as part of its business diversification efforts aligned with the government's goal of building a more self-reliant energy and industrial sector in Indonesia. The development of soda ash is one of the downstream programs undertaken by PKT. Additionally, another goal is to increase the value of commodities and create more job opportunities in the future, and striving to be pioneers in reducing imports by establishing domestic soda ash production.
To achieve the target of becoming a pioneer in domestic soda ash production, PKT is preparing to build a 300,000 MTPY capacity soda ash plant on a 16-hectare land in Bontang, East Kalimantan. The planned construction of the soda ash plant in the Bontang area is also expected to employ approximately 1,000 local workers from Bontang during the project's development. Considering that the production of soda ash will utilize CO2 emissions from the plant and ammonia as a by-product of urea production, the construction of the soda ash plant is one of PKT's efforts to implement circular economy practices by utilizing CO2 by-products.
