Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says that Canada and its allies are weighing taking action against China and Indonesia in the nickel market, as the two Asian countries tighten their collective grip in the critical mineral.
The glut of new global supply out of Indonesia has caused the steelmaking and battery metal commodity to plummet by more than 80 per cent from a peak of US$100,000 a tonne to around US$19,100 a tonne.Speaking to media in Toronto after addressing the First Nations Major Projects Coalition conference, Ms. Freeland said a flood of cheap nickel is making the operations of western mining companies uneconomical and that the behaviour of the countries in control appears to be market manipulation.
“That is not good for our economies. It’s not good for our national security. So Canada is very actively working both domestically on what we can do, and perhaps even more importantly, working energetically with our democratic partners to discuss collective responses.” “We are having productive conversations. We are in Canada, looking very carefully at ways that we can act as a country to defend our national economic interest,” she added.