DUBAI (31/10) - The Indonesian state-owned company, PT Pupuk Indonesia (Persero), is expanding opportunities for trade cooperation in Ammonia, Urea, NPK and other products by opening a representative office in Dubai City, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday, 31 October 2022 Through this expansion, Pupuk Indonesia hopes to further expand its trading business and gain wider access to raw materials and other industrial developments.

In his remarks, Deputy Minister I of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) of the Republic of Indonesia, Pahala Nugraha Mansury, stated that Pupuk Indonesia as the largest fertilizer producer in Asia plays an important role in the world fertilizer trade. In 2022, Pupuk Indonesia is predicted to achieve a revenue value of USD 6 billion or a doubling in the last five years.

Pahala also mentioned that the opening of a representative office in Dubai by Pupuk Indonesia was a very strategic step because there were three initiatives being developed by Pupuk Indonesia going forward. “First is ensuring that they have operational advantages, including supply chain efficiency. The second is related to food security and optimization, where fertilizer is one of the key success factors to have better food security. Third, we also believe that Pupuk Indonesia can also become one of the producers of products related to a green and circular economy, such as through green ammonia, green hydrogen, or in the medium term including blue ammonia and blue hydrogen," said Pahala.

Also attending the launch was the Indonesian Consul General in Dubai, Kartika Candra Negara, who highlighted the close relations between Indonesia and the UAE. He said that “This launch is very timely. Why? Because we have seen that over the past three-five years, relations between Indonesia and the UAE have been increasing exponentially. We can see how trade relations, investment, other sectors, people to people contact, and cultural relations continue to increase," said Kartina Candra.

Meanwhile, the President Director of Pupuk Indonesia, Bakir Pasaman, said that this representative office will carry out several roles, such as ensuring smooth and reliable communication with suppliers and partners, carrying out international marketing efforts for export trade, facilitating access to purchasing raw materials, especially raw materials. NPK, access to technology and manufacturing companies which generally have offices in the UAE, and in the future to support Pupuk Indonesia's trading business.

Pupuk Indonesia as one of the largest ammonia and urea producers in Asia, has more than 50 years of experience in producing and exporting ammonia and urea with the support of complete facilities and good product quality.

In 2021 alone, Pupuk Indonesia's urea export volume will reach around 2 million tons, while ammonia exports will reach 715 thousand tons. Not only urea, Pupuk Indonesia has various types of products such as NPK/NPS, and/or ZK which are also exported to a number of countries. "Especially with the UAE, we also buy a lot of sulfur, which is mostly produced by the UAE and is needed for the manufacture of sulfuric acid," added Bakir.

"So as directed by the Minister of SOEs so that Pupuk Indonesia goes global, we are expanding to get closer to the market, and are also looking for other business opportunities, especially in the field of commodity trading," Bakir explained when inaugurating the Pupuk Indonesia representative office at the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), Monday (31/10/2022). The establishment of this office, he added, can also increase cost efficiency and increase EBITDA uplift through business development by increasing sales on a Cost and Freight (CFR) and/or Cost Insurance Freight (CIF) basis. This can be done because Dubai is one of the hubs of the world's leading logistics companies.

Dubai itself was chosen because Dubai has a reputation as one of the best cities in the world for ease of doing business. The location is very strategic, between European countries such as Russia, Belarus, African countries, such as Morocco, Egypt and Asian countries, such as Jordan, India and China.

"In the future, we are targeting to scale up this representative office in Dubai to become a trading company that can provide an EBITDA uplift to the Pupuk Indonesia Group," said Bakir.