Danantara and INA Back Chandra Asri’s $800M Chemical Plant to Boost Industrial Self-Sufficiency

JAKARTA, Investortrust.id — Danantara Investment Management (DIM), sovereign wealth fund the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA), and petrochemical producer PT Chandra Asri Pacific Tbk (TPIA) have finalized a strategic investment partnership to finance and construct a world-scale Chlor Alkali–Ethylene Dichloride (CA-EDC) complex.

The joint initiative aims to reinforce Indonesia’s domestic chemical feedstock security, curb reliance on expensive raw material imports, and accelerate the central government’s broader industrial downstreaming agenda.

Led by the Chandra Asri Group, the industrial plant is designed with an annual nameplate capacity of 400 kilotons per annum (KTA) of caustic soda and 500 KTA of ethylene dichloride (EDC). Both compounds serve as foundational chemical inputs across critical downstream manufacturing clusters, including domestic alumina refining, bauxite processing, paper manufacturing, and construction materials.

Construction on the complex has advanced rapidly, reaching 80% completion as of September 2026. Heavy engineering teams are actively installing primary process equipment, while key marine and logistics infrastructure—comprising dedicated offloading jetties, trestle connecting structures, and bulk chemical storage tankage—remains in development. Project sponsors are targeting full commercial operations in 2027.

For decades, Southeast Asia’s largest economy has absorbed significant foreign-exchange outflows to import baseline industrial chemicals, even as domestic processing of mineral ores accelerated. Scaling onshore production of caustic soda is vital to support Indonesia’s burgeoning bauxite-to-alumina supply chains, which require reliable chemical reagents to refine raw ores into export-grade aluminum. By pairing state-backed institutional capital with private-sector operating capability, Jakarta is creating an integrated chemical baseline to insulate domestic supply chains from external market shocks.

Mobilizing Sovereign and Private Capital

The strategic investment combines the long-term capital deployment power of Danantara and INA with the operational track record of Chandra Asri, Indonesia’s leading integrated chemical and infrastructure solutions company.

Danantara Investment Management Chief Executive Officer Pandu Sjahrir emphasized that the CA-EDC commitment aligns with the sovereign entity's core mandate to channel patient capital into critical sectors that advance national economic sovereignty while enforcing commercial return discipline.

"As Indonesia’s downstreaming agenda progresses, DIM plays an active role in steering capital toward sectors that anchor national economic resilience, while upholding commercial discipline in line with our mandate," Sjahrir said in an official statement on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. "The CA-EDC project embodies the type of strategic investment that delivers enduring long-term value for Indonesia by bolstering domestic industry, cultivating local technical competencies, creating quality jobs, and elevating national competitiveness."

Sjahrir added that the tripartite agreement highlights Danantara’s catalytic function in crowding in private-sector industrial leaders to co-fund high-priority national manufacturing ventures.

INA Chief Executive Officer Oki Ramadhana noted that the transaction marries patient institutional underwriting with proven technical execution, supported by strong commercial demand fundamentals for basic chemicals.

"As Indonesia's downstream industries mature, this project addresses a strategic vulnerability with the potential to secure domestic supply and support the expansion of a more deeply integrated industrial base," Ramadhana said.

Anchoring Domestic Value Chains

Chandra Asri Pacific President Director and CEO Erwin Ciputra framed the transaction closing as a defining operational milestone that underpins the group’s commitment to expanding domestic industrial processing.

Ciputra noted that combining the patient balance sheets of DIM and INA with Chandra Asri’s chemical engineering assets will deliver a production base that significantly curbs import leakage and fortifies supply reliability for domestic factories.

Beyond chemical substitution, the enterprise carries significant employment impacts. The CA-EDC development is projected to absorb approximately 3,000 workers during its peak construction phase and generate 250 permanent high-skilled operational jobs once fully commissioned in 2027.