The Executive Director of the Indonesian Mining Association (IMA) Daily Executive Djoko Widajatno said that the opportunity for domestic business players to export nickel processed products to the European Union is still relatively small. Djoko reasoned that the geographical distance and the behavior of European Union buyers who are more inclined to products from Latin America have made the competitiveness of domestic industries low for the blue continent market.
“The distance to Europe makes Nickel products unable to compete with smelters that process scrap around Europe, to market to Europe there are many obstacles in licensing. Europe is more interested in nickel from Latin America because they help the Hispanic race, there are elements of fellow Europeans," Djoko said via WhatsApp message, Saturday (16/4/2022).
The export market for a number of countries is relatively wide open after the European Union and the United States restricted imports of oil and gas and other products from Russia earlier this year. The western bloc's trade maneuvers were carried out to cripple Russia from the economic side after the invasion launched into Ukraine since February 2022.
Apart from Russia, the European Union and other western bloc countries also restrict imports from Belarus. Thus, a number of Indonesia's leading commodities such as coal, CPO, nickel processing to iron and steel could have the opportunity to fill the market void in these western countries. " Nickel products from Belarus also still come out through rats so that they reach Europe, this is difficult to predict, just as gas supplies to Europe are still passing through unknown canals," he said.
Nevertheless, he said, the opportunity to export nickel processed products to the European Union could still be increased amid the geopolitical momentum this year. It's just that exporters must obtain an easy entry permit into the European Union.
"Currently, nickel products from smelters are already tied to investors in China, so 70 percent of the products are under contract," he said. As previously reported, the European Union agreed to ban coal imports from Russia after reports of Russian atrocities in Ukraine prompted regional officials to expand a fifth round of sanctions.
The sanctions package, which also includes a ban on most Russian trucks and ships from entering EU territory, was signed by the bloc's diplomats Thursday and announced by France. The European Union (EU) has refrained from hitting Russia's energy sector in previous rounds of sanctions after Germany and Hungary blocked the move because of their dependence on Russian fossil fuels.
