The Success of Nickel Downstream Needs to be Emulated by Other Commodities

According to the Association of Indonesian Mining Experts (PERHAPI), the downstream nickel commodity developed by the domestic government has been successful. PERHAPI assesses that it is time for the program to also run on other mineral commodities, such as tin, bauxite, and copper.

Reported from cnbcindonesia.com,  Chairman of PERHAPI Rizal Kasli said that the nickel downstream program being intensified by the government showed good progress. He hopes that the program for other minerals can repeat the success of nickel. According to him, the government must create advanced industries from products produced by the mining sector to final products or to the manufacturing industry.

“We hope that other commodities such as tin, bauxite, then copper and so on, the downstream program can be continued by benchmarking nickel commodities. ” said Rizal when he explained his view to CNBC Indonesia (28/9/2022).

Previously, the government had imposed a ban on nickel ore exports that was effective on 2nd January 2020. This was stated in the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation Number 11 of 2019 concerning the Second Amendment to the Regulation of the Minister of Energy, and Mineral Resources Number 25 of 2018 concerning Mineral and Coal Mining. President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) revealed that the ban on the export of nickel raw materials will have a good impact for the nation.

Reported from viva.co.id, Jokowi explained that if nickel is exported in raw condition, Indonesia will only get a profit of Rp 15 trillion. However, if Indonesia also processed it, the profits could reach Rp 300 trillion. Jokowi shared that he saw the impact of this change when he visited North Maluku. He was surprised when he found out that the Maluku economy grew up to 27 percent.

“I just came from North Maluku, and I checked that the economic growth in North Maluku reached 27 percent. Where did the 27 figure come from? I didn’t believe it at first, after I checked, oh right, nickel exports were only raw, now there is an industry smelter there,” said Jokowi in the UOB Economic Outlook 2023 (29/09/2022).