Indonesia Can’t Ignore the Cost of Its Battery Metal Boom
The Southeast Asia nation accounts for roughly half of global nickel production, but there’s a price to pay.
Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park accounts for a major percentage of the nation’s exports of nickel suitable for batteries.
Photographer: Muhammad FadliWelcome to our guide to the energy and commodities powering the global economy. Today, reporter Annie Lee writes about the dark side of Indonesia’s nickel industry. To get this newsletter sent straight to your inbox, sign up here.
Indonesia has transformed global nickel supply during the past decade, attracting billions of dollars in Chinese investment. But the battery-metal boom that’s created fortunes and tens of thousands of jobs is also raising increasingly uncomfortable questions around the price of this success.