Shandong Xinhai, Silkroad Nickel to build 400,000 mt/year ferronickel smelter in Indonesia

SHANGHAI, Aug 19 (SMM) – Indonesian nickel miner Silkroad Nickel plans to team up with Chinese nickel giant Shandong Xinhai Technology to build and operate a ferronickel smelter in Indonesia.

Silkroad Nickel said last week that it had inked a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Shandong Xinhai’s subsidiary in Singapore for this smelting project, which is a rotary kiln electric furnace (RKEF), supported by a coal-fired power plant, and can produce up to 400,000 mt of ferronickel in a year.

SMM data showed that nickel pig iron that Shandong Xinhai produced in July accounted for more than a quarter of overall output across China.

Worries that Indonesia may bring forward the ban on mineral ore exports, which was previously set to come into force in 2022, have shored up nickel prices in recent weeks.