Among the hotly debated topics at Fastmarkets’ seventh annual Asian Nickel Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, this week was whether or not increased nickel ore shipments from the Philippines would be able to offset the supply gap that will arise once Indonesia halts exports of the material from next year.
The majority of conference delegates were of the opinion that while it was likely that the Philippines would ramp up its laterite ore output and exports, this would still be insufficient to entirely cover the absence of Indonesian material in the market.
“China might not be able to rely on the Philippines in 2020 as it did in 2014,” Andy Farida, commodity research analyst at Fastmarkets, said at the conference on Tuesday September 11.
Conference-goers attributed mine depletion, low nickel grades and a strict mining policy in the Philippines as the main barriers to a significant ramp up in nickel ore…