Indonesia is considering potential cuts to nickel ore supplies to help boost prices amid a global glut, in a move that could put the brakes on rapid production growth in the world’s largest producer of a metal critical to steelmaking and EV batteries.

Nickel prices have dropped about 40 per cent over the past two years to around $16,000 per tonne because of an abundance of supply from Indonesia as demand growth slows for electric vehicles globally. The price slump has triggered substantial closures of nickel mines outside the south-east Asian nation, and has also squeezed margins of domestic producers.  

Indonesia, which controls over half of global refined nickel production, is now studying a possible adjustment to mining quotas that would boost prices, its Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources told the Financial Times.