By Manila Standard Business | July 16, 2026 12:01PM

PNIA President Dante R. Bravo (Photo credit: https://www.philippinenickel.org/)

The Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA) said Wednesday that Indonesia’s pending decision on its 2026 nickel mining quota, known as the Rencana Kerja dan Anggaran Biaya (RKAB), underscores the need for a diversified and resilient regional critical minerals supply chain, positioning the Philippines as a reliable long-term alternative.

PNIA said the Philippines remains one of the world’s leading nickel producers, accounting for about 10 percent of global nickel output and holding the world’s sixth-largest nickel reserves, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s 2025 Mineral Commodity Summary.

The country produced 67 million wet metric tons of nickel ore in 2025, more than 70 percent of which came from PNIA member companies.

PNIA president Dante Bravo said Indonesia’s annual quota decisions highlight a broader vulnerability in the region’s supply chain.

“Indonesia’s quota decisions each year are a reminder of a simple fact: global nickel supply cannot responsibly rest on a single country’s policy calendar,” Bravo said.

“The Philippines has consistently supplied the region through every cycle, through quota tightening, through quota easing, through pandemic disruption. That consistency is not an accident. It is the foundation the Philippines now offers the region as it builds a more resilient, diversified critical minerals supply chain,” Bravo said.

PNIA said it views Indonesia as a strategic partner rather than a rival in strengthening the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ role in the global nickel value chain.

Earlier this year, PNIA and Indonesia’s Asosiasi Penambang Nikel Indonesia signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen cooperation in responsible mining, sustainability, investment promotion and knowledge sharing, an arrangement the two groups have dubbed the “IndoPhil Nickel Corridor.”

PNIA said recent market developments reinforce the need to diversify critical minerals supply chains as global demand for nickel continues to grow.

“The world learned, through cobalt, through rare earths and now through nickel, what happens when critical minerals supply is concentrated in too few hands or too few markets,” Bravo said.

“ASEAN has the geology, the labor and now, increasingly, the capital, partnerships, technology and market for its more than 700 million population to ensure that does not happen with nickel. The Philippines intends to be a central part of that diversification, alongside Indonesia, not instead of it,” he said.

PNIA said strengthening the Philippines’ investment environment remains essential to capturing greater value from the global energy transition, adding that improvements in permitting efficiency, regulatory predictability and investment competitiveness will be critical to attracting downstream processing investments.

“We have the ore. We have growing interest from processing investors. What stands between the Philippines and a much larger role in the global battery and stainless steel supply chain is the speed and predictability of our own permitting system,” Bravo said.

PNIA said ongoing efforts to strengthen partnerships with countries such as Canada, alongside broader ASEAN cooperation, present new opportunities to diversify markets, attract responsible investment and reinforce the region’s role in supplying critical minerals for the global energy transition.

“Canada is one of the world’s most credible voices on responsible critical minerals sourcing, and it is actively seeking to diversify its supply partnerships in the Indo-Pacific,” Bravo said.

“A concluded Philippines-Canada FTA, alongside a broader ASEAN-Canada agreement, would give global manufacturers and battery producers a genuine, rules-based alternative sourcing option, one grounded in ASEAN supply, not concentrated in any single country. The timing of these negotiations, alongside the recalibration of nickel supply policy across the region, is not a coincidence. It reflects a broader global shift toward diversified, trusted sourcing of critical minerals,” he said.

PNIA also called for closer regional cooperation among critical mineral-producing countries to strengthen supply chain resilience, promote responsible mining standards and enhance ASEAN’s collective competitiveness.

“The goal is not to replace one dominant supplier with another. The goal is a genuinely balanced, multi-country, multi-market critical minerals supply chain for the energy transition, one where the Philippines, Indonesia and our ASEAN neighbors each play a durable role,” Bravo said.

The Philippine Nickel Industry Association is the unified industry voice of the Philippine nickel sector, representing member companies that account for approximately 74 percent of national nickel production.

Source: Manila Standard