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Production resumes at Central Sulawesi nickel smelter after deadly labor clashes
Operations were suspended due to a protest and riot at the weekend in which two workers were killed.
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roduction at a nickel smelter owned by China's Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry resumed on Tuesday, Central Sulawesi Police said, after operations were suspended due to a protest and riot at the weekend in which two workers were killed.
An Indonesian and a Chinese worker died, while vehicles and dormitories were torched during the clashes at the PT Gunbuster Nickel Industry (GNI) smelter, a unit of Jiangsu Delong, which involved protesters, workers and security guards.
"The situation at GNI in North Morowali is relatively conducive and the company today has restarted operation," Central Sulawesi Police spokesperson Didik Supranoto said in a statement.
"Hundreds of employees have arrived at the site," he added, sharing a video showing workers wearing gray uniforms and yellow helmets arriving on motorcycles while police officers guarded the entrance into the facility.
GNI could not be reached for comment. In a statement on Monday, it said it was working with police to investigate the cause of the clashes.
National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo on Monday said over 500 police and military personnel had been deployed to secure the nickel-smelting facility, and more would be sent.
Police are still looking deeper into the incident, Listyo added, saying that at least 71 people had been arrested so far, 17 of whom have been named as vandalism suspects.
With the company set to resume operations on Tuesday morning, Listyo said that reinforcements would be deployed to GNI to aid the 548 police and military personnel already securing the plant.
Concerns over foreign labor, particularly Chinese, have compounded in recent years due to fears that the large numbers of Chinese workers coming into the country will take jobs away from local communities, a sentiment often abused to incite anger in labor rallies.
Violent protests have broken out sporadically in the mineral-rich region of Sulawesi, which has seen a recent investment boom in nickel, which is used to produce electric vehicle batteries.
GNI launched the smelter, which has an annual output capacity of 1.8 million tonnes, in late 2021. An estimated US$2.7 billion was invested to build the smelter.
There are about 11,000 Indonesian workers at GNI's plant and 1,300 foreign personnel, according to the police.
The Chinese embassy condemned the violence.
"We, as the Indonesian government did, condemn this vile incident, during which the violent breaking into the industrial park caused casualties among Chinese and Indonesian staff and damage to facilities in the park," the embassy said in a statement.
