China’s Ferro-Nickel Imports Surge, Driven by Indonesian Supply
China’s ferro-nickel imports rose to 8.98 million tonnes in 2024, reflecting a 6.24% year-on-year increase, according to data from China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) released on January 20. The growth was primarily fueled by higher shipments from Indonesia, which supplied 8.67 million tonnes of ferro-nickel, up 9.48% from the previous year.
The majority of China’s ferro-nickel imports are nickel pig iron (NPI), a lower-grade ferroalloy containing around 12% nickel, while a smaller portion is high-grade FeNi, which typically exceeds 20% nickel content. Both materials fall under the GACC’s ferro-nickel category, as noted by Mysteel Global.
While Indonesia achieved record-high FeNi exports to China in 2024, the year’s overall growth fell short of expectations due to delays in the approval of Indonesia’s Work Plan and Budget (RKAB). These delays impacted nickel ore production and its subsequent processing into ferroalloy derivatives. However, Jakarta’s relaxation of approval restrictions toward the end of the year spurred a significant increase in shipments, with December’s imports reaching a historic monthly high of 995,100 tonnes, a 12.73% year-on-year rise. Of this, 969,900 tonnes originated from Indonesia.
For 2025, Indonesia has approved the production of 250 million wet metric tons of nickel ore under the RKAB. While this falls short of the estimated 290 million wmt global demand, it signals a more abundant supply for China in the first half of the year. Analysts caution that any tightening of Indonesian policy could impact supply levels if market conditions deteriorate.
In China, NPI remains the dominant nickel source for stainless steel production, accounting for 77.68% of nickel consumption in domestic stainless steel manufacturing in 2024, according to Mysteel data. FeNi accounted for just 3.81%, while stainless scrap comprised 17.86%. Imported NPI gained favor among producers last year due to its lower cost compared to domestic NPI, which resulted in losses for Chinese stainless makers using local NPI. By December 31, 2024, profit margins for producing stainless cold-rolled coil (CRC) with imported NPI stood at 0.39%, compared to a 2.4% loss using domestic NPI.
Despite limited growth in stainless scrap consumption due to its long lifecycle, domestic stainless steelmakers reported a margin of 1.87% per tonne of stainless CRC produced as of December 31. This profitability underscores the continued reliance on imported NPI for cost-effective production.
