Heavy Equipment Industry Sustains Infrastructure Sector to Agriculture

JAKARTA - The heavy equipment industry plays an important role in supporting other business activities, such as in the mining sector, processing of forest land, infrastructure development, plantation and agriculture. The performance of the national heavy equipment industry began to show signs of improvement this year, as reflected in the production and sales report.

"Moreover, the government is focusing on equitable development across the region, especially the outer regions of Indonesia. The development covers land clearing activities and the making of facilities and infrastructure to support people's lives," said Minister of Industry Airlangga Hartarto as reported in the press release (14/12/2017).

Referring to the data of Indonesia Heavy Equipment Association (Hinabi), heavy equipment production until the first quarter of 2017 reached 1,153 units, up 87 percent over the same period last year of about 619 units. Meanwhile, in the second quarter, the national heavy equipment industry recorded sales of 2,467 units, and is predicted to reach 4,400 units by the end of 2017.

In order to support government programs in food self-sufficiency, PT. Komatsu Indonesia seeks to develop heavy equipment products such as tractors that can be used for planting corn seeds with internet technology as the operation. This heavy equipment has been tested on farmland in Merauke, Papua.

"We encourage this heavy equipment industry to continue to innovate, including producing products that can support the agricultural sector. Because in the future, the agricultural sector will be more modern, especially outside Java. We spur this industry to increase the local components," said Airlangga. 

According to Airlangga, the distribution of development is also conducted together with the increase of added value in the country. This is done by the government through the downstream mining processing policy. This policy is a step towards improving the availability of advanced raw materials, which are needed to develop advanced industrial products.

"The added value is also beneficial to the local economy, we take the example in Morowali District, with the smelter industry, the economy there rose by 65 percent in 2015 and boosted exports by more than 80 percent by 2017," he said.