Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) issued Ministerial Decree No. 144.K/MB.01/MEM.B/2026, effective 15 April 2026, fundamentally restructuring the Nickel Ore Benchmark Price (Harga Patokan Mineral, HPM) formula that governs the minimum domestic transaction price for ore sales from IUP/IUPK miners to downstream processors. For the first time the HPM uses a multi-element comprehensive pricing formula incorporating by-product credits for cobalt, iron, and chromium alongside nickel content, and raises the Correction Factor (CF) for 1.6%-grade ore from 17% to 30% (a ~76% increase), with an inverse-linear ±1% CF adjustment per ±0.1% grade variance. The reform also shifts HPM measurement from dry-metric-ton (US$/dmt) to wet-metric-ton (US$/wmt) with explicit moisture-content deduction, covers 10 minerals including bauxite, and replaces Kepmen ESDM No. 268.K/2025. The measure redistributes economic rent from the downstream Chinese-backed HPAL/RKEF processing complex toward upstream Indonesian miners, tightening margins across Indonesia's ~50%-of-global-supply nickel-ore industry.

Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) confirmed it has officially cut the 2026 nickel-ore Work Plan and Budget (RKAB) production ceiling to 260–270 million wet metric tonnes (wmt), down from the ~379 million wmt approved for 2025 — a reduction of roughly one-third. Actual 2026 production is targeted at approximately 209–210 million tonnes. Minister Bahlil Lahadalia framed the cut as a supply-demand balancing measure to stabilise nickel prices and conserve reserves; the government first signalled the production control on 23 December 2025, after which world nickel prices rose from roughly US$14,800/t under oversupply to above US$17,000–18,800/t. This is the operative 2026 application of the annual RKAB cycle established by Permen ESDM 17/2025.

The Türkiye Ministry of Trade's Imports General Directorate published Communiqué No. 2025/44 in Resmî Gazete on 27 December 2025, imposing a definitive flat-rate 3.95% ad valorem anti-dumping duty on imports of cold-rolled stainless flat steel (CRSS) originating in the People's Republic of China, covering 22 customs-tariff positions under HS headings 7219 and 7220. The duty runs for five years from the date of publication (sunset 27 December 2030). The parallel investigation track into Indonesian-origin CRSS was closed without measures — imports from Indonesia were determined to be at a negligible dumping margin and caused no material injury to the domestic industry. The investigation (initiated as Notice 2024/20, June 2024) was petitioned by the Turkish stainless-steel producer consortium (Posco Assan Stainless TST, Sandvik Karbosan, and ÇağdaşÇelik).

Decision No. 530 of 2025 of Egypt's Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade renews, for a further one-year period from the expiry of the prior decision, an export duty of EGP 9,000 (~US$189) per metric ton on scrap and waste of stainless-steel alloys (HS 7204.21), implemented via Egyptian Customs Tariff Circular No. 67/2025. Shipments destined for free zones within Egypt are excluded from the duty. The stated rationale is to regulate exports of what the ministry classifies as a strategic input and preserve domestic feedstock supply for Egypt's steel industry.

Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources issued Permen ESDM No. 17 of 2025 on procedures for preparing, submitting and approving Work Plans and Budgets (RKAB) and reporting of mineral and coal mining activities. Signed by Minister Bahlil Lahadalia on 30 September 2025 and in force from 3 October 2025, the regulation reverses the 2023 three-year RKAB cycle back to an annual cycle, requires all IUP/IUPK holders to resubmit through the new MinerbaOne digital portal between 1 October and 15 November each year, annuls previously-issued 2026/2027 quotas, and introduces a 5-working-day auto-approval rule. Operationalised by a 2026 nickel-ore RKAB target band of 250–270 million wmt — roughly one third below the 2025 approved quota of ~379 million wmt — explicitly framed as a price-management and conservation instrument. First clear use of the RKAB framework as an explicit market-management lever rather than a domestic-licensing tool.

SARS inserted rebate item 460.15/7306.40/01.06 into Part 2 of Schedule No. 4 to the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 (Government Gazette 53334, Notice R.6596, 12 September 2025), giving effect to ITAC Report No. 742. The item creates a temporary duty rebate on stainless-steel tubing (HS 7306.40) used in the manufacture and maintenance of processing plants for the hygienic and liquid-food industries. ITAC found no known SACU manufacturer produces stainless-steel tubing to the required hygienic/ food-grade specifications, and no near-term prospect of local production given cost constraints, so it recommended a full duty waiver subject to an ITAC permit confirming the goods are not available in the SACU market. Applicant: Guth South Africa (equipment supplier to the hygienic and liquid-food processing sector).

Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Foreign Trade (GAFT), chaired by Dr. Majed Alkassabi, issued its final affirmative determination on 29 June 2025 imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on longitudinally-welded circular stainless-steel pipes and tubes originating in or exported from the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. Duty rates range from 6.5% to 27.3% depending on exporter, effective 30 June 2025, following an investigation opened 2 May 2024 on a domestic-industry complaint. The measure runs for five years, with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) directed to collect the duty at the border.

South African Cabinet on 25 June 2025 approved a three-part package to revitalise the domestic ferrochrome sector: (i) placement of chrome ore under export control via the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) under the International Trade Administration Act 71 of 2002, requiring an export permit prior to dispatch; (ii) initiation of work on a chrome ore export tax (rate not finalised; market reporting cites 25%); (iii) expanded SEZ incentives for ferrochrome smelters and a negotiated electricity- tariff relief mechanism. The DTIC notice formally placing chrome ore under export control was published in Government Gazette No. 53477 General Notice 6712 on 3 October 2025 with a 30-day public-comment window closing 31 October 2025; the final permit regime takes effect upon subsequent ministerial gazette notice. South Africa accounts for >70% of seaborne chrome ore exports, so the regime is globally material to stainless-steel supply chains.

On 28 July 2023 Japan's government decided a further amendment to the Export Trade Control Order under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, adding goods that contribute to strengthening Russia's industrial base to the existing export prohibition list. The additional goods include passenger vehicles over 1,900cc displacement (gasoline, diesel, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric), stainless-steel drill pipes used in oil and gas drilling, yachts and recreational/sporting vessels, and construction-mineral products (monumental/building stone, gypsum, anhydrite, clays). The measure was gazetted 2 August 2023 and took effect 9 August 2023, aligning Japan's export-control list with equivalent measures other G7 members had already adopted.

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.