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Print[Ferro-Alloys.com] Japan's nickel imports from Indonesia surged in July from the year before due to the arrival of cargoes delayed after Jakarta imposed new mining regulations and because figures for 2011 were decimated by the deadly earthquake and tsunami that hit in March that year.
An industry body in Tokyo said that nickel trade between the two countries was "returning to normal" after shipments slated for May and June were postponed as details of Indonesia's new mining rules, announced in May, became clear.
The country has imposed an export tax on metal ores and prohibited the shipment of raw minerals unless miners submit plans to build smelters.
But Japanese smelters mostly buy ore from large and established Indonesian suppliers that comply with the new rules and have been relatively unaffected by the regulations so far, an official from the Japan Mining Industry Association told Reuters.
Nickel imports from Indonesia rose 85 percent from a year ago to 190,445 tonnes in July, customs-cleared data showed on Thursday.
That follows 136,600 tonnes of imports in June, more than four times last year's 31,483 tonnes, when a big smelter was forced to shut a plant in the wake of the quake.
Japan buys more than half the nickel ore it purchases under annual contracts from Indonesia.
Sumitomo Metal and Mining Co, one of Japan's top-two ferro-nickel producers, told a trade paper early this month that it plans to buy higher-priced Indonesian ore at least until the end of 2013, but will increase purchases from New Caledonia and the Philippines depending on Indonesian policy.
China, the world's leading consumer and producer of nickel, saw its nickel ore imports from Indonesia plunge 29.4 percent in July from the previous month to 1.42 million tonnes, according to customs data on Aug. 21.
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