It is reported that the world's second largest nickel supplier, the Philippines, is considering imitating Indonesia's taxation of nickel ore exports in order to attract foreign investment to upgrade its nickel metal processing industry, transforming from an ore exporter to a mineral processing country. Some analysts said that this will increase the uncertainty of supply in the global nickel market, and it may push up Chinese manufacturers’ cost of purchasing nickel ore.
Specifically, nickel ore from the Philippines is mainly exported to China and Japan. Taking China as an example, after the effect of Indonesian nickel ore ban, China’s nickel ore imports from the Philippines account for nearly 90% of China’s total imports. “If the Philippines starts to levy nickel ore export tariffs, for nickel processing companies in China and Japan, the cost of purchasing nickel ore will inevitably rise, which will also raise the cost of primary nickel smelting in the two countries." Said Everbright Futures Research Institute.
Judging from the current global supply of laterite nickel ore, the growth of supply in other countries is slow. Therefore, under the ban on nickel ore exports in Indonesia, the manufacturers in the world are not left with many choices other than the Philippines. Therefore, the downstream players could only accept the booming cost related to the export tariff imposed by the Philippines on nickel ore. In addition, if the Philippines imposes excessive tariffs and offers greater incentives to attract foreign investment, there may be a new investment boom in nickel smelting industry, and the supply of primary nickel will increase potentially in the future. But it will take longer to realise.
