Indonesia Turned $1B Nickel Into a $20B Industry — Now It Wants Everything

Everyone said Indonesia's 2020 ban on raw nickel ore exports would backfire. Instead, it turned a sub-$1 billion export into a nearly $20 billion downstream industry — and Indonesia now produces over half the world's nickel. The mechanism: "downstreaming." To get Indonesia's nickel, companies had to build smelters inside Indonesia. Billions flowed into industrial parks on Sulawesi and Halmahera — Morowali (IMIP) and Weda Bay (IWIP) — entire cities built around one metal. The catch: Chinese firms control roughly 75% of Indonesia's nickel refining capacity, giving Beijing a tight grip on the EV battery supply chain. Indonesia got the jobs, factories and revenue; China got the metal. Now Indonesia is extending the playbook — it banned bauxite exports in 2023 and has put copper and tin on notice. The EU challenged the nickel ban at the WTO and won the first round; Indonesia pressed ahead anyway. From Africa to Latin America, resource-rich countries are watching. Follow Money Maps for more geopolitics, mapped. #Shorts #Indonesia #Nickel #China #EVbatteries #CriticalMinerals #Geopolitics #Mining