With the increasing awareness of the global community on the importance of switching to cleaner energy, the electric car industry, which is considered an alternative to a more environmentally friendly mode of transportation, is one of the industries that is experiencing rapid development and is expected to replace the conventional car industry in the future. With the trend to promote low-emission electricity-based technology, there is also an increasing global demand for batteries, which are a crucial component in almost every electricity-based technology. In this case, nickel, which is one of the raw materials for batteries, will soon become a commodity with very high demand, and this demand is only expected to continue to increase.

Amid this phenomenon, Indonesia is said to be the country with the largest nickel reserves in the world, reaching up to 21 million tonnes. In response to this, the Government then issued a downstream policy that prohibits the export of raw nickel and requires the processing of nickel first into ferronickel, stainless steel, slabs, steel sheets, and the main material for lithium batteries before being exported. This export ban policy was later sued by the European Union at the WTO, and the lawsuit is still ongoing today.

With the potential for development of the nickel industry, coupled with Indonesia’s potential as the country with the largest nickel reserves in the world, there is a great opportunity for industry actors to explore the nickel industry in Indonesia. Therefore, it is very important to have a strong understanding of the various regulations that bind all parties in the nickel industry in Indonesia.

On that basis, Petromindo in collaboration with ET-Asia, ADCO Law, and Coal & Mineral Asia Magazine, intends to hold a series of webinars to explore the legal framework of the nickel industry in Indonesia.