Affected by epidemic situation, Ifishdeco plans to revise the production and sales targets of nickel mines this year.

SMM3, March 25: according to local media reports in Indonesia, the epidemic has hindered the production and sale of nickel in Indonesia. In order to alleviate this situation, PT Ifishdeco Tbk (IFSH), one of the nickel companies, has begun to adjust and revise its production targets this year. Crystal Planoto (Christo Pranoto), secretary of Ifishdeco, revealed that production and sales of the Ifishdeco nickel mine in the first quarter were not significantly affected by the outbreak.

According to him, Indonesia has accelerated its ban on the export of low-grade nickel ores since January 1, 2020, which has freed Ifishdeco from its dependence on the export market. Because last year, almost 100 per cent of Ifishdeco's ore exports went to the Chinese market. With the implementation of the export ban, Ifishdeco moved export sales to the local market.

So far, since Ifishdeco still has a sales contract, the production and sale of nickel ore can be maintained at the target level. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, the capacity of the country's smelters has not reached its maximum, so smelters may change production targets and revise nickel sales contracts.

As a result, Ifishdeco will also revise its production and sales targets for nickel mines this year. Crystal said a decline in production is likely as Ifishdeco has begun to reduce mining activities as a measure to prevent the spread of the epidemic.

In his record, Ifishdeco set a target of producing 2.3 million nickel mines this year. To this end, Ifishdeco aims to produce about 191000 metric tons of ore per month. Ifishdeco also produces nickel derivatives in the form of nickel pig iron (NPI), which is processed by its subsidiary PT Bintang Smelter Indonesia (BSI). Given the current situation, Ifishdeco acknowledges that it will be difficult to meet the target of 46200 tonnes of NPI by the end of 2020, as production at the BSI smelter has been hampered by the outbreak.

It is estimated that if the treatment of the epidemic can be completed in March or April and labour and equipment from China can enter Indonesia, the blast furnace facility can be completed by mid-May. In this way, BSI can begin to increase its NPI production in June. According to its calculations, only 29400 tons of NPI could be produced by the end of December 2020.

The Indonesian Nickel Mining Association (APNI) and the Indonesian Association of processing and Refining Industries (AP3I) also reported a decline in the production and sales of nickel ores or their derivatives in the country. Mining practitioners and smelter Arif S. Tiammar have expressed similar views. In these cases, he said, the decline in production capacity was an inevitable result, so production of nickel mines and their derivatives would be lower than in the same period last year.

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