ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – Indonesia is starting to take strategic steps to optimize state income through trading in critical mineral commodities, one of which is nickel.
Head of the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Agency, Tirta Karma Senjaya, emphasized that his party will implement nickel trading via the futures exchange in Indonesia. For this reason, the reference price for nickel will soon be determined.
“As a producer and owner of the largest nickel reserves in the world, Indonesia must optimize nickel trading to increase state income. Currently, nickel prices are still based on foreign exchanges so their own reference price is needed,” said Tirta in a statement in Jakarta, Friday, January 31 2025.
According to Tirta, this step is in line with the government’s efforts to encourage downstreaming, strengthen domestic markets, increase export markets, and grow more business actors.
Tirta explained that nickel has the potential to become the subject of futures contracts on the Indonesian Futures Exchange. It is hoped that this effort can encourage the formation of nickel price references in national and global markets as mandated by Law Number 10 of 2011 concerning Amendments to Law Number 32 of 1997 concerning Commodity Futures Trading.
“Initially, nickel was widely used as a raw material for stainless steel, but as technology develops, its use is becoming more widespread, especially in the electric vehicle battery industry. In terms of price, nickel is a commodity with a high level of fluctuation,” he said.
Based on data from the United States Geological Survey, Indonesia’s nickel production will reach 1.8 million tons out of a total of 3.6 million tons of world nickel production in 2023. This shows that Indonesia’s nickel production is the largest in the world.
Most of Indonesia’s nickel producing areas are spread across Central Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi and North Maluku.
Based on data from the Ministry of Trade, Indonesia is the largest nickel exporter in the world. Meanwhile, the main destination countries for Indonesian nickel exports are China, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands and South Korea. (AT Network)
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