CRI also estimated that carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation were ?roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 450,000 cars.?

Besides geopolitical threat to the West , Chinese companies have started dominating nickel mining in Indonesia because Nickel can help the world achieve net zero emissions. Nickle is Indonesia?s first priority commodity to become a clean-energy superpower.

China?s investment in Indonesia?s nickel industry

China had invested three billion US dollars in Indonesia in the Quarter four of 2022. The investment value of that period was the highest compared to other countries valued at 3 billion US dollars such as Singapore with 2.7 billion US dollars, Hong Kong with 1.6 billion US dollars, Malaysia with 1.1 billion US dollars, and the United States with 0.9 billion US dollars.

According to the Indonesiabusinesspost.com, Shandong Nanshan, a major Chinese company, was expanding its aluminium smelting complex worth 6 billion US dollarswhich is the largest foreign investment in Indonesia. The company also invited other Chinese companies to invest in Indonesia.

In the IMIP area, China has reportedly invested 1.63 billion US dollars for the development of area. With Tsingshan Group, Delong Group, and PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park signed the cooperation, collaborating to build a carbon steel factory with a capacity of 3.5 million tons with an investment of 980 million US dollars.

In 2021, China?s leading nickel trader, Lygend Resources & Technology, built Indonesia?s first hydrometallurgical nickel project. Chinese mining company Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt and metal recycling service provider GEM Co. have since launched similar projects. About 3,000 miles south of Beijing, Chinese mining companies have set up operations in the heart of the world?s largest known nickel reserves. On the Indonesian islands of Sulawesi and Halmahera, they?ve built refineries, smelters, a new metallurgy school?even a nickel museum.

Together, they?ve plowed 3.2 billion US dollars into the remote islands this year alone, bringing the total to 14.2 billion US dollars in investment over the past 10 years?enough to secure their nickel supply into the next decade. The metal is primarily used in the production of stainless steel, but it?s also a critical component in electric vehicles. It makes up 90% of the cathode, the most expensive part of a high-performance battery, and there?s concern that demand will outstrip supply in the not-so-distant future.

While Chinese companies may have given huge money to the Indonesian government but several questions have been raised over prevailing working conditions in such companies .Three Chinese workers at an Indonesian nickel industrial complex on Sulawesi island approached Indonesia?s human rights commission over poor workplace conditions early last year. The complainants at PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Central Sulawesi province said they ?endured a lot of physical, psychological, financial damages to their reputation as human beings?, according to a statement from the law firm.The park, which counts China?s nickel company Tsingshan Holding Group as a prominent partner, employs about 100,000 people and spans 2,000 hectares with an airport, mineral processing plants, a port and a hotel for high-level visitors.

Indonesia?s Human Rights Commission conducted a probe into working conditions in the nickel refining industry following reports of ?lack of labour protection? for both local and foreign workers who were mainly from China.

President Joko Widodo told Reuters last year Indonesia would increase scrutiny of miners and order companies to manage nurseries and reforest depleted mines.

(Directus.gr)