JAKARTA, June 10 -- The next electric-car battery, bag of cooking oil or tonne of power-station coal may now pass through a single office in Jakarta before it reaches the world. Indonesia has begun forcing exports of its most valuable commodities through one new state company, the most aggressive assertion yet of control by the country that supplies much of the planet's nickel, coal and palm oil. Since June 1, producers of coal, crude palm oil and ferroalloys, three categories that earned roughly $65 billion last year, must route their export paperwork through PT Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia, a unit of the country's new sovereign wealth fund, ahead of full centralisation by the start of 2027.

The export chokepoint is only part of it. E...