World
Weda Bay's Quota Stranded Eramet and Spared Tsingshan's Smelters
Jakarta cut PT Weda Bay Nickel's 2026 ore quota by 71%, more than twice the sector average; the mine hit that ceiling in mid-May. Danantara, Indonesia's sovereign investment authority, is now in early talks to acquire Eramet's 37.8% stake.
Jakarta cut PT Weda Bay Nickel's 2026 ore quota by 71%, to 12 million wet metric tonnes from 42 million, and the mine exhausted that allocation in mid-May.
Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia set Indonesia's 2026 nickel ore quota at 260 to 270 million tonnes, down roughly a third from 379 million in 2025; Vale Indonesia confirmed a cut in that range. Weda Bay's 71% was more than twice the sector average. By end of March, Eramet's Q1 release showed the joint venture had shipped 8.3 million wet metric tonnes, leaving under 700,000 tonnes of room in the annual quota.
The Rencana Kerja dan Anggaran Biaya, or RKAB, is the annual work plan permit each Indonesian miner must file; it sets the legal extraction ceiling. Tsingshan Holding Group controls 51.3% of the venture, Eramet holds 37.8%, and state miner Antam holds 10%. Of the 12 million-tonne allocation, 9 million was the external sales cap; Tsingshan's rotary furnaces inside Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park drew from the same shared pool.
Tsingshan's NPI smelters inside IWIP draw on ore from across North Maluku province, not only Weda Bay. Most of that NPI ships to Tsingshan's stainless mills in Zhejiang and Fujian.
For Eramet, there is no equivalent fallback: its only Indonesia revenue runs through the Weda Bay stake. Danantara, Indonesia's sovereign investment authority, confirmed it is in early talks to acquire that stake; CEO Rosan Perkasa Roeslani made the disclosure publicly. Eramet filed a revision request to raise its RKAB ceiling and is planning a €500 million rights issue in which Danantara has said it may participate.
The asymmetry reveals what the quota was also doing: creating a distressed-sale position that formal expropriation proceedings could not have produced without triggering bilateral investment treaty claims. Danantara's public confirmation of acquisition talks, at the moment when Eramet's only exit path runs through a ministerial approval, closes the gap between policy instrument and deal mechanism.
That revision request is pending; Indonesian mining rules cap it at once per year, with a final submission deadline of July 31 and a five-working-day decision window. If Jakarta approves, the mine restarts. If not, Danantara's offer is the exit.