PT Trimegah Bangun Persada Tbk (NCKL) is optimistic about achieving its production target this year. This target will be supported by the last or third line of the High Pressure Acid Leaching (HPAL) smelter which will start operating in August 2024 and fully operational in October / November 2024.

Head of Investor Relations Harita Nickel Lukito Gozali said, FeNi production target (PT MSP + PT HJF) for 2024 is 120,000 tons of nickel content and MHP production (PT Halmahera Persada Lygend or HPL + PT Obi Nickel Cobalt or ONC) is 75,000 - 85,000 tons of nickel content.

“We are committed to continuing to produce in accordance with the installed capacity, and until the first quarter of 2024, our production results are still higher than the existing installed capacity,” Lukito told Kontan, Thursday (11/7).

Lukito explained, according to the report for the first quarter of 2024, Harita Nickel's production results include 30,434 tons of nickel content in FeNi, which is above the installed capacity of 30,000 tons of nickel content in FeNi (PT MSP + PT HJF). 

In addition, 16,717 tons of nickel content in MHP, above the installed capacity of 13,750 tons of nickel content in MHP (only PT HPL, PT ONC began production in the second quarter).

Kontan notes, President Director of Harita Nickel Roy Arman Arfandy said that currently in the global market there is indeed a decline in nickel prices which also affects the income of world nickel companies including in Indonesia.

“This decline depends on various factors. The first factor is geopolitical tension, the war in Ukrania and Russia and the war in the Middle East. It all encourages the volatility of nickel prices,” he said when met by Kontan at the Public Expose event in the South Jakarta area, Thursday (27/06).

Apart from geopolitics, Roy admitted that the decline in prices was also influenced by the oversupply of nickel in Indonesia. Even so, he is optimistic that the decline in nickel prices this year will not last long. Because in March 2024, nickel prices have started to show an increase.