Indonesia has decided to bring forward a ban on exports of nickel ore by two years.Originally slated to begin on January 1st 2022,the ban will now take place as soon as January 1st 2020.Indonesia said it had expedited the ban to reserve ore supplies for its rapidly expanding nickel smelting sector,producing nickel pig iron(NPI),stainless steel and electric vehicle battery nickel.The ban was first introduced in 2014 to try and force development of a downstream nickel processing industry in Indonesia,based on its extensive deposits of nickel,rather than seeing its ore go to feed production in China and elsewhere.It was relaxed under a quota system in 2017.The restrictions have had the desired effect in developing a domestic nickel industry.From nearly zero in 2014,Indonesia’s NPI output climbed to 261,000 t/a in 2018 and could reach 530,000 t/a in 2020.It currently has a base of 11 working smelters with an input capacity of 24 million t/a of ore,and plans to add 25 more smelting units.
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