Indonesia’s Nickel Curbs & Localization Reshape Monel 400 Supply
Indonesia’s aggressive push to nationalize its nickel resources has sent shockwaves through the global supply chain for Monel 400, a corrosion-resistant alloy vital to industries ranging from offshore oil drilling to hydrogen energy. As the world’s largest nickel producer, Indonesia now requires foreign mining companies to refine raw ore domestically and transfer majority ownership to local entities within a decade—a policy designed to cement its dominance in high-value nickel processing. These measures, framed as a bid to boost domestic industrialization, have upended traditional supply networks that once shipped Indonesian nickel ore to Chinese refineries before distributing semi-finished products to Western alloy manufacturers. By 2025, over a third of the world’s refined nickel originates from Indonesian industrial parks like Morowali, compared to just 5% five years earlier, forcing Monel 400 producers into a costly reckoning with centralized production hubs and geopolitical dependencies.