[Ferro-Alloys.com] 

Amid nickel glut, Indonesia’s next president vows to keep ‘downstreaming’ policy

Indonesia’s incoming president, Prabowo Subianto, has pledged to continue predecessor Joko Widodo’s nickel “downstreaming” policy but faces the task of reducing oversupply while pushing to strengthen the processing industry, his advisers say.

Indonesia produced about 1.4 million tons of primary nickel last year, or about 40% of global output, data from the International Nickel Study Group showed.

“Indonesia is flooding the nickel market with low-cost supply, and we don’t think it’s going to stop anytime soon,” said S&P Global Ratings, which predicts the country will add 300,000 metric tons of smelting capacity this year.

S&P Market Intelligence expects the oversupply to continue beyond 2025, as Indonesia has excess capacity for an intermediate product, nickel pig iron (NPI).

• [Editor:邢亚敏]