Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan has backed the decision to temporarily stop nickel ore exports, saying the temporary export ban, which will last between one and two weeks, was necessary to give customs and excise officers, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the Indonesian Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) and the Navy time to investigate alleged violations.

“We’re doing this now because there’s information or intelligence saying there’s foul play going on with nickel ore exports, such as the alleged export of ore with nickel content above 1.7 percent, export quota violations, exports carried out by those who don’t have smelters and smelter [construction progress] that isn’t in line with what’s reported,” he said at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday.

“We will investigate those [allegations] in the next two weeks because reports from Indonesia and China show starkly different figures.”

The government only allows exports of ore with less than 1.7 percent nickel content and only issues export quotas to companies that are building smelters in the country.

Luhut said Tuesday evening that the temporary ban was put in place because exports exceeded the government’s nickel export quota, with between 100 and 130 shipments of occurring each month, a significant increase over the usual 30 shipments.

The decision, announced without warning by BKPM head Bahlil Lahadalia on Monday evening, was made just two months before the implementation of a permanent ban on mineral ore exports in January 2020. Bahlil said the decision did not involve any written documents but was based on an agreement among stakeholders after a closed-door meeting with miners.

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