Indonesia's Nickel Reference Price Rose Slightly in the Second Half of October 2025

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) set Indonesia's reference nickel price at US$15,142 per dry metric tonne (dmt) for the second period of October 2025.

That price rose very slightly by 0.26% from the initial period of October 2025, which was US$15,101.67 per dmt.

Although it doesn't appear significantly different, the prices for the two periods of October 2025 are actually higher than July-September 2025. In those six consecutive monthly periods, the reference price was in the range of US$14,900-15,000 per dmt.

This reference price was set through the Decree of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia (Kepmen ESDM) Number 338.K/MB.01/MEM.B/2025 concerning the Reference Price for Metal Minerals and Reference Price for Coal for the Second Period of October 2025, on October 14, 2025.

Nickel Issuers Becoming More Ambitious

The government's push to advance the national nickel industry, which is the main raw material for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, has led a number of domestic nickel industry issuers to continuously boost their businesses. Some other companies have even started adding nickel ventures to their portfolios.

Citing Katadata, the government is ambitious to build an electric vehicle battery ecosystem from upstream to downstream, in line with the downstreaming program being promoted by President Prabowo Subianto. One of the main focuses of downstreaming is increasing the added value of nickel to support the supply chain for EV battery production domestically.

Rully Arya Wisnubroto, Head of Research and Chief Economist at Mirae Asset Sekuritas Indonesia, stated that the downstreaming policy during President Prabowo Subianto's era will be a continuation of the program implemented during President Joko Widodo's administration.

Although nickel has been the main focus so far, going forward, the government needs to consider other commodities like bauxite, which also has great potential to support new battery technologies replacing nickel.

"Indonesia has abundant bauxite resources. So, the direction of downstreaming might need to adapt to global technological developments in the EV industry," said Rully at a recent Mirae Media Day event.

(Read Katadata: New Wave in the Stock Market: Issuers Rush into Nickel Business Due to Downstreaming)