Nickel is at the centre of Indonesia’s efforts to become a clean-energy superpower. But the industry highlights some uncomfortable trade-offs in the global battery business
Nickel is at the centre of Indonesia’s efforts to become a clean-energy superpower. The country has one of the world’s two largest reserves of the stuff. In an attempt to capture more of the higher-margin markets for metal-processing and battery-making, a decade ago the government banned the export of raw nickel ore. Harita’s and Merdeka’s blockbusters show that the policy is having an effect.
Western investors and nickel-buyers, under pressure from environmental activists and virtue-signalling consumers back home, are still uneasy. This discomfort must be weighed against the desire of those same groups to accelerate the energy transition. A lot more electric cars must hit the road if the West’s climate goals are to be met: just one in four sold last year in China and Europe, and one in 14 in America, were electric or hybrid.
The second set of trade-offs concerns geopolitics. America and Europe want to rely less on authoritarian China for all manner of technology, including in clean energy. Western governments may end up splurging on the order of $1trn to wrestfrom Chinese firms, which dominate sectors from critical-mineral refining to the making of batteries and solar panels. Yet Chinese involvement in these industries will remain a fact of life for years to come.
Other Westerners may still shun Indonesian nickel. If so, less squeamish rivals will happily step in. Last year South Korea’s
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