In early 2020, the Indonesian government announced the ban on nickel ore exports in order to attract foreign investors to open nickel smelters and downstream industries in its territory, of which China is an important contributor.

In 2021, the government continued to implement the relevant injunction to ban the export of processed products with nickel content below 70%. Nickel ore must be processed into value-added products before being exported to increase the additional value of nickel products exported, which is now bearing fruit. As seen in the data, the exports were valued at $12.35 billion from January to August 2022, soaring 263% from $3.40 billion in the same period in 2019 before the nickel ore exports ban. Six years ago, the country's nickel ore exports were about $1.1 billion, while nickel-based products were valued at $20.9 billion in 2021, representing a jump of 19 times the value added of nickel products.

The Indonesian ban has been proven to provide a broad multiplier effect on the national economy, therefore, the Indonesian government will proceed to stimulate the development of the nickel smelting industry - the Indonesian government aims to complete the construction of 53 smelters, including 30 nickel smelters, by 2024.

Among the nickel products, the demand for high grade nickel matte as a raw material for new energy batteries, has been growing rapidly in recent years. High grade nickel can be produced by both conventional electrolytic process into electrolytic nickel and by HPAL technology into nickel sulfate, so that by the intermediate high grade nickel matte, electrolytic nickel, ferronickel, nickel sulfate can be transformed to each other and balanced in the market, which will be generally conducive to the healthy and sound development of the market.

Manufacturing high-grade nickel matte from low grade nickel laterite ore by RKBF smelting process is receiving more and more attention from the industry. It's a powerful means to adopt advanced oxygen-rich side-blowing furnace process where enriched oxygen is injected into the side-blown furnace to improve the smelting efficiency and economic benefits for high-grade nickel matte smelters today. RKBF smelting process has higher nickel recovery rate, and at the same time can recover cobalt in the raw ore, which is more environmentally friendly. It has the advantages of higher heat utilization rate and flexible selection of raw ores, etc., making it maturely applied in copper, lead, zinc and other non-ferrous metal smelting.

As the world's largest supplier of VPSA oxygen equipment, PKU Pioneer has been committed to the R&D, design and manufacture of PSA, VPSA oxygen generation systems and molecular sieves for nearly 23 years. With more than 300 sets of oxygen plant projects, PKU Pioneer's provided VPSA oxygen units for over 40 non-ferrous metal smelting enterprises to optimize their smelting process and promote the capacity enhancement and cost reduction according to the specific oxygen requirements of the users. The projects with oxygen flow of 2000-10000Nm3/h account for 70% of all our projects, well meeting the main oxygen volume of non-ferrous metal smelting.  In summary, PKU Pioneer is the preferred supplier of VPSA oxygen generation equipment for nickel smelting industry.