Refuses to Delay Nickel Export Duty, Purbaya: If Profiting, They Stay Quiet
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has responded to the nickel industry’s request to delay the imposition of export duties on that strategic mineral commodity, due to disruptions in the price of its processing raw material, sulphur.
According to Purbaya, that reason cannot yet be justified, as the government must further examine the pricing structure for each export of nickel products from Indonesia. Because, in his view, fluctuations in the price of raw material sulphur have never caused concern among nickel product exporters in the past.
“We’ll look first at what this structure is like. Buying from here is cheap, the nickel. What percentage is that of the international price. Back then, why didn’t they complain. They stayed quiet if profiting. If losing, they immediately ask for compensation. But we’ll study it later,” Purbaya stressed in the State Palace area, Jakarta, on Wednesday (8/4/2026).
Purbaya also emphasised that the government must now monitor illegal nickel commodity exporters more strictly. This is what has prompted the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to review a new formula for the Reference Mineral Price (HMA) for nickel commodities.
“There are many doing it on the sly. If that’s the case, I don’t need to raise the HMA, right. HMA is definitely for raw nickel. I’m thinking about that. Why is there HMA. That means there is that, which can’t be ignored,” Purbaya explained.
The Director General of Minerals and Coal (Dirjen Minerba) of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Tri Winarno, previously revealed that the new nickel HMA formula will take into account the value of accompanying minerals in nickel ore.
According to him, these highly economically valuable accompanying minerals, such as cobalt and iron, have not been optimally priced so far.
“For each month, we report that previously it was based on the LME (London Metal Exchange) with a certain correction factor,” Tri said when met at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources office, Jakarta, on Monday (6/4/2026).
“We’ll price the cobalt, price the iron, so the reference price can rise,” he added.
The changes being prepared by the government, Tri said, are purely in the calculation formula, namely the correction factor and valuation of accompanying minerals. Meanwhile, the issuance and determination schedule for the reference price will continue routinely as usual without any changes to the release period.
“If it’s issued every two weeks, we’ll still issue it. It’s the formula that changes. The formulas,” he stressed.