A police officer stands guard near the site where a furnace explosion occurred at PT Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel smelting plant in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia on Dec 24, 2023. - AP
JAKARTA: Indonesia will inspect all of the country’s smelters to ensure they comply with local regulations following last month’s deadly blast at a nickel facility owned by Tsingshan Holding Group.
The police and two ministries have been ordered to carry out checks on the sites by Coordinating Minister for Investment and Maritime Affairs Luhut Panjaitan. It follows an explosion in late December at Chinese firm Tsingshan’s smelter on the island of Sulawesi, which killed 21.
The incident, which came just weeks ahead of an election, showed the hidden costs that have come with the breakneck expansion of Indonesia’s nickel industry. Encouraged by a ban on ore exports, the country has received billions of dollars of investment in processing facilities largely owned and operated by Chinese firms. Nickel is a battery metal and key to the energy transition.
"We have to show that we do need investment, but they have to comply with existing regulations in our country,” Panjaitan said in a statement. "Don’t ignore these rules.”
The expansion of the industry has seen Indonesia boost its share of global nickel supply to more than 50%, making the metal a key plank of incumbent President Joko Widodo’s drive to add more value to its commodity exports. But the facilities have been the site of a series of accidents, while also drawing scrutiny for their carbon intensive coal-based energy supply. - Bloomberg
