IKI: Nickel matte export expected to rise in Q3

Commodity research firm PT Indeks Komoditas Indonesia (IKI) projected the country’s nickel matte export to increase in the third quarter of this year on robust demand and completion of PT Vale Indonesia Tbk’s furnace rebuild.

 “The export of nickel matte could rise in the third quarter of 2022 due to the completion of Vale’s smelter maintenance, with the assumption of high demand from Japan, while output from Tsingshan’s smelter is expected to stay robust due to higher demand from electric vehicles,” IKI said in its latest Indonesia Nickel Report (INR).

The report said that nickel matte export in March 2022 jumped by more than three times than export in February to 21.41 Kt, driven by higher sales from Tsingshan’s smelter, located at the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi Province, to China by 15.88 Kt.

The INR said that nickel matte export from Vale’s smelter in Sorowako, South Sulawesi Province, decreased slightly to 5.54 Kt in March due to low demand from Japan.   “IKI is under the impression that the significant increase in Tsingshan’s export in March 2022 could be one of the factors that made Vale replace Sumitomo with Huayue for its HPAL smelter project in order to secure demand from China.”

Total nickel matte export in the first quarter of 2022 jumped by 86.35 percent y-o-y to 34.31 Kt with sales from Tsingshan’s smelter accounted for 51 percent of the total export or 17.56 Kt, while export by Vale decreased by more than 9.0 percent y-o-y to only 16.75 Kt, the INR said.

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