Shanghai Nonferrous Metals News
SMM: The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia (ESDM), has revealed that Indonesia will resume its ban on exporting nickel laterite under grade 1.7% Ni, by end-December 2019.
SMM verified the news with many nickel laterite traders and local Indonesian nickel laterite miners, confirming that exports will be banned on 31st December 2019, and any unused 2019 export quotas will expire on that date.
As a result, domestic Chinese NPI smelters will face a severe deficit of nickel laterite in 2020 – short approximately 100 kt in nickel metal, and smelters may be forced to cut operations.
