Delong Industrial Park, a ferronickel and stainless steel industrial park developed by China's Jiangsu Delong Nickel Co., Ltd., is located in Kendari, Sulawesi province of Indonesia. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By WANG Xiaoxia

A China-invested project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Indonesia has accelerated the upgrade of the country's nickel industry, and helped Indonesia transform from a raw material supplier to the world's top producer of nickel iron and stainless steel.

Delong Industrial Park, located in Sulawesi province of Indonesia, is a ferronickel and stainless steel industrial park developed by China's Jiangsu Delong Nickel Co., Ltd., with a planned area of 2,200 hectares and an output capacity of 3-million-tons of ferronickel and 2.5-million-tons of stainless steel.

As a key BRI project jointly built by China and Indonesia, the industrial park was inaugurated in 2014, and comprises two plants in Kendari and one in Morowali, which were listed as national strategic projects of Indonesia.

Indonesia is home to the world's largest nickel ore reserves. The smelters and processing plants have added value to its nickel reserves compared to simply exporting the nickel ore, and offered opportunities for the country's deep participation into the global stainless steel and new energy industry chain.

At the launch ceremony of Morowali ferronickel smelter plant in December 2021, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said that the construction of such a smelter is welcomed and appreciated, adding that such projects not only contribute to the tax revenue, but also create job opportunities and will promote local economic development.

In 2021, the Delong Industrial Park's Kendari branch alone contributed more than 3 billion RMB to Indonesian tax revenue. The industrial park has provided 30,000 jobs for local people, accounting for 80 percent of the staff.

Meanwhile, to improve the skills of local workers and cultivate specialists for the development of the nickel industry, a training institute run by Delong was approved by the Indonesian education authority and started to recruit students in May 2021.

The development of an industrial park brought tangible benefits to the whole area. The industrial park has already helped build 15 kilometers of roads and 20 bridges. Twelve kilometers from the park, the annual throughput of the cargo port of Delong in Kendari has exceeded 50 million tons.

Most of the villagers on the outskirts are grateful to the park, especially in the past two years, when the COVID-19 epidemic impacted the economy, but the park has helped the villagers overcome the difficult times, said a local villager.

There is great potential for in-depth cooperation between China and Indonesia in the nickel industry in the future, said Zhou Yuan, general manager of Delong Industrial Park in Indonesia, adding that the park's output of nickel iron and stainless steel is expected to double this year, and the power battery industry for new energy vehicles is also on agenda.