Indonesia displaced Canada as the world’s leading exporter of nickel and nickel manufactures in 2022 by increasing these sales at a year-on-year rate of 365% percent.
With this, Indonesian exports of these products climbed to US$5.978 billion, according to data from BPS-Statistics Indonesia.
Already in the previous year, in 2021, exports of nickel and nickel manufactures from Indonesia had grown 59%, year on year.
Historically, according to Vale, Chinese domestic nickel pig iron production accounted for most of the growth in global nickel supply using unprocessed nickel ore from the Philippines and Indonesia.
However, China‘s nickel pig iron production was negatively affected by the restriction on the export of unprocessed ore from Indonesia, which resumed in 2020, allowing Indonesia to emerge as the largest nickel pig iron producer.
In 2022, approximately 13% of the world’s primary nickel supply was produced as nickel pig iron in China.
At the same time, around 37 % of the world’s primary nickel supply was produced as nickel pig iron in Indonesia, with much of it directly integrated to produce stainless steel.
In 2021, Indonesia began converting nickel pig iron into nickel matte for further conversion into battery-grade material.
Vale expects nickel pig iron production and conversion into nickel matte in Indonesia to continue to grow.
Leading exporter of nickel
Vale is one of the world’s largest mining and metals companies, based on market capitalization, and one of the world’s largest producers of iron ore and nickel.
The company’s main nickel operations are conducted through its subsidiary Vale Canada Limited, which has mines and processing plants in Canada and Indonesia, and controls and operates nickel refining facilities in the United Kingdom and Japan.
Vale also has nickel operations at Onça Puma, located in the Brazilian state of Pará.
Vale’s finished nickel products represent what is known in the industry as «primary» nickel, i.e. nickel produced primarily from nickel ores (as opposed to «secondary» nickel, which is recovered from recycled nickel-containing material).
Vale’s nickel production accounted for 6.13 % of world primary nickel consumption in 2022.
In addition to this company, the largest integrated mine-to-market suppliers in the nickel industry (each with their own integrated facilities, including mining, processing, refining and marketing nickel operations) are Tsingshan Group, Jiangsu Delong Nickel, Jinchuan Nonferrous Metals Corporation, Nornickel and Eramet.
Together with Vale, these companies accounted for about 45 % of world refined primary nickel production in 2022.
