Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 12 December 2025 the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) approved Act 1361/2025, amending the Mining Minerals Tax Act (kaivosmineraalivero- laki, Act 314/2023) on the basis of government bill HE 127/2025. The amendment raises the value-based royalty on taxable metals contained in mined metallic ores from 0.6% to 2.5% (a 4.2× increase) and lifts the tonnage royalty on industrial minerals and other useful rock from €0.20 to €0.60 per tonne (3× increase). Iron is newly added to the list of taxable metals (alongside silver, gold, cobalt, chromium, copper, lithium, nickel, lead, palladium, platinum, uranium and zinc). Tax revenue is split 80% to the state and 20% to mining municipalities. The amendment enters into force on 1 January 2026.

Finland's parent foreign-direct-investment screening statute. Laki ulkomaalaisten yritysostojen seurannasta (172/2012) — originally enacted in 2012 to replace the 1992 act — was comprehensively amended by Act 682/2020, which entered into force 11 October 2020 to align Finnish national procedure with EU Regulation 2019/452 establishing the EU FDI cooperation mechanism. The Act establishes (i) mandatory ex-ante notification to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (TEM) for non-EU/EEA acquisitions of Finnish entities producing or supplying defence equipment, dual-use goods, or products/services critical to functions vital to society, and (ii) voluntary notification for any acquisition of a Finnish company with "critical interests for securing societal vital functions." Foreign-owner triggers apply at 10%, one-third, and 50% of voting rights or equivalent influence. TEM is designated the Finnish FDI contact point under Reg 2019/452. Confirmation is granted by TEM unless a key national interest is endangered, in which case the matter is referred to a Government plenary session (Valtioneuvoston yleisistunto); a denied transaction obliges the foreign owner to dispose of the shares within a stated period.

Indonesia accelerated the implementation of its raw nickel ore export ban, originally scheduled for 2022, to take effect on 1 January 2020. Announced 30 August 2019 by Minister Ignasius Jonan via ESDM Regulation No. 11/2019, the ban prohibits the export of nickel ore with grades below 1.7% Ni (effectively all Indonesian saprolite and limonite ore that previously flowed to Chinese stainless-steel and ferronickel mills) and forces ore to be processed domestically into intermediate products (nickel pig iron, ferronickel, mixed hydroxide precipitate, nickel sulfate). The policy is part of the long-running "hilirisasi" (downstream-isation) strategy and was the trigger for the >$30B wave of Chinese-led nickel- processing investment in Sulawesi (Morowali, Weda Bay) that has since made Indonesia the dominant global nickel producer.