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Indonesia ends temporary ban, allows nickel ore exports until January 2020
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Activities at a nickel mining site. (Kontan/Cheppy A. Muchlis)
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week after announcing a temporary ban on nickel ore exports, Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan has announced exports will be permitted until January 2020.
In what observers have deemed a regulatory flip-flop that could disrupt the country’s business climate and regulatory certainty, Luhut said Thursday evening that the ban “has been lifted for companies compliant with existing regulations”.
Luhut added that once the planned permanent ban comes into effect in January 2020, all domestic selling prices for nickel “will be pegged at the average international price for one year”, minus tax and shipping costs.
Luhut’s announcement on Thursday came after a closed-door meeting with, among others, Trade Ministry, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) officials.
No formal regulation has been issued by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, although the ministry has been involved in coordinating meetings with Luhut’s office.
The ministry’s most recent regulation, issued in September, brought forward the permanent nickel export ban to January 2020, from a prior date in 2022 when a number of smelters to process nickel ore will become operational.
Meanwhile, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministerial Regulation No. 5/2017 only permits exports of nickel ore with purity levels below 1.7 percent, and for companies that will operate their own smelters by 2022.
