Chinese Firms Forge Ties with Indonesia, Chasing Nickel for Battery Boom

Back in 2009, when China’s economy was expanding at about twice today’s pace, a little-known private firm made a quiet bet on uncharted territory: Indonesia. The company was on a quest: to secure nickel, a vital industrial metal used in stainless steel production and, increasingly, to power advanced batteries. The company, founded in Wenzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, is one of a growing number of Chinese enterprises helping to forge deeper trade and industrial ties between the world’s second-largest economy and Southeast Asia’s largest. “Indonesia provides the resources, while China contributes capital, technology and manufacturing expertise, creating an increasingly integrated economic ecosystem,” said Zhao Xijun, a finance professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing. Chasing the battery boom