Jakarta | Indonesia will press on with plans to expand nickel output despite a supply glut that is forcing rivals to shut down mines, as the world’s top producer aims to keep prices low and protect long-term demand for the metal crucial to electric car batteries, a senior government official has said.
The country’s production capacity for battery-grade nickel was expected to quadruple to 1 million tonnes by 2030, said Septian Hario Seto, the deputy co-ordinating minister for investment and mining. Capacity for nickel pig iron, which is used to make stainless steel, was projected to expand by up to 15 per cent in three years from the current 1.9 million tonnes, he added.
Nickel prices have slumped 30 per cent in the past year on elevated supply from Indonesia and softer demand. More than half of global nickel production is unprofitable at current prices of about $US16,500 a tonne.
“We don’t see any reason why we should not expand production of nickel for battery materials,” Mr Seto told the Financial Times. “What we want to achieve is price equilibrium. The responsibility for us as the biggest nickel producer is to supply enough nickel so that the EV [electric vehicle] transition can progress smoothly.”
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