Cooperation for Establishing Critical Minerals Industrial Ecology in ASEAN: With a Special Focus on the Case of Nickel in Indonesia

During the previous era of rapid globalization and relatively free trade, the primary goal of establishing global supply chains was to minimize costs and leverage comparative advantages. But as global geopolitical competition has intensified, major governments have erected trade barriers to shield their domestic industries. Export controls and other protectionist measures have led private and public actors alike to work to stabilize and de-risk their supply chains. Nowhere is this more evident than in the supply chain for critical mineral resources (CMR), which collectively represent the essential inputs in electric vehicles (EV) and energy storage system (ESS) batteries. The geopolitical climate is one of two major risks in CMR supply chains. The other is the overconcentration of CMR mining and processing in a handful of countries. This risk has led governments to pursue international cooperation with resource-rich developing countries such as Indonesia and Viet Nam. But many resource-rich countries often lack sufficient capacity to explore, mine, and refine enough CMR to meet global demand. With this in mind, this report investigates the current state of the CMR supply chains. Based on the results of the analysis, it proposes a suite of Executive Summary12 Cooperation for Establishing Critical Minerals Industrial Ecology in ASEAN sustainable CMR supply chain and industrial development cooperation measures targeting partnerships between advanced manufacturing countries and resource-rich developing countries.