https://www.google.com/amp/s/business.financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/indonesian-nickel-miners-to-stop-ore-exports-immediately/amp

Indonesia's problems seem two-fold.  One...They have put a ban on the export of raw nickel from the country to encourage foreign investment to support the building of smelters in Indonesia.  The premise here being that they believe others should pay to promote the benefication of their ores prior to them leaving the country.  This way their country gets the added value and profit from their ores, instead of the countries they export to.... Namely China. This is nice and all, but what about the smelters in China who expect this raw ore, so that they can do the same.  Problem one.

Two...As suggested by the article below Indonesia's own mining companies are now expecting to receive fair value for their ores.  Regardless of whether their sold domestically, or internationally.  Their stance being that local smelters have priced nickel much lower than those seen on international markets. Problem two.

So the dilemma is this...Indonesia believes that by banning exports of raw materials they can now force other countries, again we're talking China, to invest in building smelters in their country.  If China were to do this, which theoretically they can, then this would mean many of  their own nickel smelting industries back in China would not be needed.  Eventually, these smelters in China would be forced to close up.  Putting hundreds, possibly thousands, out of work.  All this to satisfy the Indonesian government who believe they should have the upper hand.  Even though it is showing their own people would like a bigger slice of the pie also....So, Could this ban all end up being a wash...Maybe.

IMO....I don't think Indonesia is going to get what they want, because China can simply get what they want elsewhere.  At least till Indonesia comes to it's senses about its true relation with China.  Yes...China does need the nickel.  But I think they can weather the economic hit of not having it, or sourcing it from elsewhere, far better than Indonesia can weather months, if not years, of economic collapse.  The Chinese are a patient people.  They will wait till Indonesia finally realizes who is in control, and where the real power is.

The experts say nickel is expected to fall, but I don't personally see it......TM.

Indonesian nickel miners to stop ore exports immediately

• BY REUTERS

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s nickel miners agreed on Monday to stop nickel ore exports immediately, the country’s investment agency chief Bahlil Lahadalia said, after Jakarta last month brought forward a ban on shipments to January 2020 from 2022.

Exports due to be shipped from Indonesia, the world’s biggest nickel ore producer, will be bought by local smelter operators at an international price level, Lahadalia said.

“This agreement was carried out not on the basis of a letter from the government or technical ministry, but a joint agreement,” Lahadalia said. “Where the agreement is carried out by the nickel association with us the government.”

Indonesia’s government in September expedited the ore export ban by two years as part of its efforts to boost expansion of a local smelting industry.

Expectations of the Indonesian ban have pushed nickel prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) up nearly 40% to around $17,000 a tonne now. In September, they hit a five-year high of $18,850 a tonne.

A spokesman at the mining ministry, which issues regulations on ore exports, said he could not immediately comment.

Lahadalia, who was appointed last week by President Joko Widodo in his new cabinet, said nickel companies agreed not to export ore based on “collective awareness” to create added value to Indonesian resource exports by processing them onshore.

Nickel smelters have been having problems buying raw material for their plants since Indonesia announced it was moving forward the ore export ban to January.

China’s Tsingshan, the biggest smelter operator in Indonesia, will cut production by 20% starting in November due to scarcity of ore and as the rainy season begins, to maintain its levels of ore inventory, said a company official in Jakarta.

Alexander Barus, executive director at PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, Indonesia’s largest nickel industrial park -where Tshingshan operates – said smelters in Morowali were ready to buy ore from miners.

“We will buy according to our stockpile capacity and when the specification and prices are suitable,” Barus said after attending the meeting with the investment agency chief.

Meidy Lengkey, secretary general of Indonesian Nickel Miners Association, told Reuters that miners were fine with the export stoppage as long as the government helps to support domestic ore prices.

“We are supportive, but prices given to miners should be fair,” she said.

Miners have complained that local smelters are pricing nickel ore at much lower price compared to those exported.

The mining ministry said they will revise pricing rules to put a floor price for ore. (Additional reporting Fransiska Nangoy, Ed Davies; Writing by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Jan Harvey and David Evans)