Indonesia moves to ease rare earth checks bottleneck delaying alumina, nickel exports

Indonesia’s presidential staff office has called for cooperation between government agencies, law enforcement officials and industry to resolve a regulatory gap that industry sources say has delayed exports of alumina and nickel products over their rare earth content.

Indonesia is a major minerals exporter but only a minor producer of rare earths as a by-product, and no rules have yet been set governing the proportion of those elements that can be included in shipments of other minerals.

Officials said on Monday exporters had faced shipment delays due to the absence of clear regulations on the matter.

“I received reports from several companies about disruptions to mineral exports,” Presidential Chief of Staff Dudung Abdurachman said on Monday after chairing a coordination meeting on the subject between government agencies, law enforcement officials and industry representatives.

Two aluminum industry sources said exports of alumina, the key raw material for aluminum smelting, had been affected.

“The government claims our alumina contains rare earth materials,” one of the sources said, adding that there had been an immediate impact on shipments.

Two nickel industry sources said some shipments of nickel pig iron, a key input for stainless steel, and mixed hydroxide precipitate, used to make electric-vehicle battery materials, had also been held up. They did not say how much material had been affected.

All four sources declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Rare earths prioritized for domestic use

Dudung said exports containing rare earth elements as by-products had been hindered by a regulatory gap on allowable rare earth content, without specifying the type of shipments that had been affected.

He said authorities, including the military, should not obstruct exports in the absence of rules governing rare earth element by-products.

The meeting he chaired was attended by representatives from key economic ministries, national research and innovation agency BRIN, the police, the Attorney General’s Office, sovereign wealth fund Danantara, state mining firms and industry groups.

Indonesian rules specify that rare earth elements should be prioritized for domestic use, and President Prabowo Subianto has set up a special agency to oversee development of their applications.

Malaysia, India, Qatar, Singapore and China were the main destinations for Indonesian alumina exports in the first five months of this year, according to data from Trade Data Monitor.

China received almost 98% of Indonesia’s ferronickel exports, a customs category that includes nickel pig iron, during the same period.

(By Dewi Kurniawati, Tom Daly, Dylan Duan and Bernadette Christina; Editing by Jan Harvey)