The push to increase supply from Indonesia predates Ukraine. This process has been in the works for almost a decade as Indonesia looked to create jobs and their growth was fueled by China looking to control a major chunk of yet another commodity.
What Nortex is missing it is that most of Indonesia pig nickel is class 2 which goes into stainless steel production. Class 1 is what is used in batteries. Back to how all this started is the picture of an Indonesian mine and saying the damage was due to EVs which is interesting if most Indonesia nickel isn't of quality sufficient for cathodes. Btw, any metal mining looks bad when you take photos. It has been that way since man started extracting them from the earth. I agree with comments that politicians make the argument that EVs are green and will save the planet and as I have said many times, I don't agree with that but I also don't agree they are worse than ICE despite the EVidians continuing to try to make that claim.
"Chinese companies have built dozens of nickel smelters in Indonesia, especially after the Southeast Asian nation's government imposed a permanent ban on nickel ore exports in early 2020. Sulawesi and Halmahera islands have become hubs for such facilities, but most smelters churn out nickel pig iron, a feedstock for stainless steel."
PS. Class 2 can be upgraded to class 1 but it takes a lot more processing.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/Commodities/Metals-expert-warns-of-shortage-of-high-grade-nickel-near-2030
What Nortex is missing it is that most of Indonesia pig nickel is class 2 which goes into stainless steel production. Class 1 is what is used in batteries. Back to how all this started is the picture of an Indonesian mine and saying the damage was due to EVs which is interesting if most Indonesia nickel isn't of quality sufficient for cathodes. Btw, any metal mining looks bad when you take photos. It has been that way since man started extracting them from the earth. I agree with comments that politicians make the argument that EVs are green and will save the planet and as I have said many times, I don't agree with that but I also don't agree they are worse than ICE despite the EVidians continuing to try to make that claim.
"Chinese companies have built dozens of nickel smelters in Indonesia, especially after the Southeast Asian nation's government imposed a permanent ban on nickel ore exports in early 2020. Sulawesi and Halmahera islands have become hubs for such facilities, but most smelters churn out nickel pig iron, a feedstock for stainless steel."
PS. Class 2 can be upgraded to class 1 but it takes a lot more processing.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/Commodities/Metals-expert-warns-of-shortage-of-high-grade-nickel-near-2030