Indonesia’s suspension of bauxite export might impact global supply marginally

The 7th and current President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo on 24^th November 2021 restated his plan to discontinue the exports of all commodity raw materials that will ban the exports of bauxite in 2022, copper in 2023, and tin in 2024.

"We are now calculating the possibility to stop exporting raw bauxite, perhaps starting next year. The next year after that would be raw copper, and the year after that, in. We will continue to do this," the President said in a national coordination meeting and the awards ceremony for investment services, held by the Ministry of Investment in Jakarta.

Furthermore, in October 2021, the head of the state commented that he aims to restrain the commodity export of all raw materials.

President Jokowi said: "The government will encourage the downstream industry to process raw materials into semi-finished and/or finished goods. In the future, Indonesia will stop relying on the export of raw commodities, but rather processed goods, which is expected to provide added value economically."

However, Indonesia’s bauxite export curb is anticipated to have a marginal impact on the global bauxite supply in the short term.

The bauxite mining and supply of Indonesia falls way down from Guinea and Australia. The primary purpose of bauxite export restriction is to augment the production of local alumina refineries. The Chinese aluminium giants Hongqiao and Nanshan Aluminium have alumina refinery projects in Indonesia and the supply of alumina will not be hampered.