The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) will cooperate with a number of institutions to further investigate the alleged illegal export of 5 million tons of nickel ore to China from 2020.

Cooperation with various parties

Previously, information about alleged illegal nickel exports to China was first echoed by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), referring to a report from The General Administration of Customs of China (GACC).

Then, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise from the Ministry of Finance followed up on allegations of illegal exports to China.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Nickel Mining Association (APNI) has been coordinating about the alleged smuggling with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources since 2022.

The Ministry received a number of information related to tracing the illegal export of nickel ore from a number of institutions, and is carrying out a joint investigation with the Indonesian Embassy (KBRI) in Beijing, China and the Chinese customs and excise authorities.

Through this joint coordination, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources received the classification of mineral commodity export records from the Chinese authorities.

"But so far it's still in the investigation process because that's the findings of Chinese customs. We're still collecting verification data," said Arifin Tasrif, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Differences in perception and sales of code determination

Arifin said this suspicion occurred due to differences in perceptions in recording mineral commodity exports between Indonesia and China.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Wafid, Acting Director General of Minerals and Coal from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said the same thing, mentioning differences in perceptions of determining the sales code for mining goods.

"Differences in perception are also possible, but we will see first, so far we have to wait because we are also communicating with customs," said Arifin.

Nirwala Dwi Heryanto, Director of Communication and Guidance for Customs Service Users, said that the smuggling of nickel ore exports to China is very reasonable.

Because previously it had prevented a similar incident with a smaller volume, amounting to 71,000 tons in September 2021.

"Five million tons is not a small amount. This assumption has been made since 2020, meaning that the export of nickel ore and concentrate has been banned," he said, on June 26, 2023.

Meanwhile, Meidy Katrin Lengkey, Secretary General of APNI said, his party was aware of illegal nickel ore export practices using the HS-2604 code for the period 2021-2022 for nickel pig iron (NPi) or sales codes for companies or processing plants, not mining products.

APNI recorded illegal nickel ore export shipments of 839.161 tons in 2021 and 1.08 million tons in 2022 with a value of US$ 54.64 million using the HS code 2604.

APNI encourages Customs and Excise to be more vigilant in passing sales documents by continuing checking efforts on commodities to be wary of factories that have access to international ports for exports of processed nickel products.

"The sales reporting document used is HS-2604, that is for NPi or the like. So it's not nickel ore," said Meidy.

Identifying the perpetrators

Also in relation to the investigation into the illegal nickel ore export, Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, claimed that he has information on the parties that are involved in the illegal activity.

Luhut explained that the Directorate of Customs and Excise of the Finance Ministry had provided data on the name of the ships and the companies who smuggled the nickels to China.

"We have the data, the name of the carrier and the companies, what we discovered we will handle in Indonesia," Luhut said.

Luhut added that in an effort to prevent similar cases from happening, the government will conduct a data collection of companies involved in nickel processing. The company names will be included in the Mineral and Coal Information System between Ministries and Institutions (Simbara).

"We will sort it out, don't worry. Now Simbara is already covering coal, and we will include nickel in Simbara, so all of this digitalization is for significant progress," he explained.

Simbara is a system that integrates the comprehensive business processes, systems, and data of minerals and coal (minerba) from upstream to downstream. Simbara also aims to oversee Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP) and the mineral and coal trading system (Minerba).