Australia listed Nickel Industries says nickel producers in the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, a key production base for the metal, will coordinate on output cuts as Chinese operators weigh steep reductions. Companies involved in the meeting include Tsingshan Group, CNGR Advanced Material, Lygend Resources, Huayou Cobalt and GEM, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Reuters. No final decision has been made, and the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The economics explain the meeting. Nickel on the London Metal Exchange has fallen nearly 25 percent from this year’s peak of 20,000 dollars a tonne to 15,070 dollars last week, its lowest since December 2025, and nickel pig iron prices have fallen from more than 1,100 yuan per nickel unit in early September to 1,009 yuan. Producers face rising costs amid sulphur shortages and tighter Indonesian nickel ore mining quotas, and the sulphur squeeze already prompted a mixed hydroxide precipitate production cut earlier this year.
Nickel Industries has already moved on its own account. It has reduced its Indonesian nickel pig iron production to 75 percent of capacity this month and delayed the full ramp up of another nickel and cobalt project because of a lack of rainfall linked to El Nino, according to its executive Werner as reported by Reuters.
London nickel jumped 3.7 percent on Wednesday following the first report of the meeting, then pulled back on Friday as traders waited for clarity on scale and timing. The open question is whether proposed cuts count reductions already under way for months, as one trading source noted. Similar discussions in August produced no agreement, which is the precedent to hold against this round.