Indonesia’s nickel pig iron spigot reopens

A temporary reduction in nickel pig iron (NPI) production and shipping activities raised the prospect of a spike in demand for stainless steel scrap in late February and early this month.

Now, however, Singapore-based Navigate Commodities says its satellite observation analysis shows those NPI high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) plants that had curtailed activities are ramping back up.

Navigate Managing Director Atilla Widnell, in a March 13 LinkedIn post, says some of the reduced activity was caused by a processing waste landslide near a specific set of HPAL plants operated by a company based in China.

“Navigate Commodities monitored a sharp contraction (greater than 67 percent) in nickel ore flows across Indonesia [from] Feb. 15 to March 3,” not just at the plants near the landslide, but at others in the southeast Asian country," Widnell says.

“Since March 4, 2026, domestically produced Indonesian nickel ore has started flowing back to Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP—the plant near the landslide) and other plants across the country and has rebounded by 71.9 percent from its trough or lows recorded last week.”

Recycled stainless steel competes with NPI as feedstock in mill melt shops around the world, particularly in Asia. The tracking from Navigate Commodities seems to indicate that any spike in demand for stainless steel scrap caused by melt shop material substitution was short-lived.