PT. Indoferro, a member of Indonesia-based steel manufacturer The Growth Steel Group, has announced that, following the commissioning of its blast furnace in August this year, it has started producing nickel pig iron to serve stainless steel producers in the Asian and European markets. The nickel smelter's initial production is about 1,000 mt of ingots a day.
PT. Indoferro, which plans to produce 250,000 mt of nickel pig iron in 2013, is the first smelter in Indonesia, set up following the new mining regulation implemented by the Indonesian government in the current year. The Indonesian government imposed an export tax this year on raw mineral exports in order to push miners to process raw ores domestically and export higher-value finished metals.
As the world's top exporter of nickel ore, Indonesia's nickel ore export value totaled $513.3 million in the January-August period of this year, falling by 42 percent compared to the same period of 2011, according to statistics released by the country's Ministry of Trade.