Ferro-alloys.com：China's customs data showed on Wednesday that despite Southeast Asian countries banning the export of the material, Indonesia is still China's second largest supplier of nickel in 2020.

The General Administration of Customs reported that the total volume of Indonesian nickel ore shipped to China last year was 3.4 million tons. This is a decrease of 85.8% compared to 2019, but it is still second only to the Philippines, with 31.98 million tons, ranking third after New Caledonia.

Indonesia shipped 1.98 million tons in January and February. This may be the last shipment to leave Indonesia before the ban takes effect on January 1, 2020, although some of these shipments may have been delayed by the coronavirus containment.

Subsequent data showed that Indonesia imported a small amount of nickel ore every month last year, including 78,245 tons in December.

Indonesia issued a ban, requiring more nickel ore to be processed domestically. According to data from Indonesia, from January to November this year, the country's nickel ore exports to China were zero.

An official from the Chinese customs and the Indonesian mining department did not give an explanation, but some analysts believe that the answer may be that the material is exported as iron ore but imported into China as nickel ore.

Analyst Ellie Wang said that the nickel content of these iron ore is usually only about 1%, and the iron content is more than 50%, as is the iron ore of the Indonesian government.

She added that some Chinese stainless steel companies will declare them as nickel ore at the customs. "They can mix the ore with other grades of ore and then produce low-grade nickel pig iron," which is used to make stainless steel, Wang said.

He added: "We used to add some nickel ore to the annual iron ore import data-especially nickel ore imported from the Philippines, but it is also possible to import nickel ore from Indonesia."

In 2020, nickel pig iron imported by China from Indonesia can still be exported, an increase of 100.9% year-on-year to 2.73 million tons.

• [Editor:zhaozihao]