According to the data from Chinese General Administration of Customs on September 25th, the total imports of nickel ore in August to China from Indonesia rose about 27% year on year, mainly because of the nickel export ban policy from the Indonesian government.

More and more stainless steelmakers in China had decided to increase their inventory to reduce the impact of the ban policy, which would be started from the first day of 2020.

As the policy had been advanced by two years, which also pushed the London Metal Exchange’s (LME) nickel price came to the highest point in recent five years.

However, experts say that while Philippine nickel miners were likely to boost output next year, they would still not be able to match Indonesia's higher-grade ore and would not be able to fully fill the supply gap.