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Indonesia seizes part of world’s largest nickel mine

China unveils plan to ‘stabilise’ auto sector growth BEIJING: China unveiled a plan on Saturday to “stabilise” growth in its auto sector in the face of a price war between competitors and export woes, state media reported. Announced jointly by eight government departments, the plan for 2025 and 2026 “stresses cost surveys and price monitoring”, as well as encouraging innovation and domestic demand, according to state news agency Xinhua. The plan foresees a slowdown in total vehicle sales to around 32.3 million this year, amounting to 3% growth. That compares to 4.5% growth registered in 2024, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Beijing has invested massively in recent years to support the development of China’s electric vehicle industry. The plan published on Saturday foresees 20% growth year-on-year in new energy vehicles, with 15.5 million units in 2025. However, a price war has left many startups bust as firms flood the domestic market with low-cost cars and trade-in schemes. During a meeting in July, Chinese officials called for an end to “irrational competition” and a focus instead on more healthy development. China’s export market has also been hit, with the European Union launching an investigation in 2023 into unfair competition in the country’s auto industry. This week, Mexico proposed a 50% duty on car imports from China, up from 15%-20%, prompting Beijing’s ire. Beijing said last Thursday it “firmly opposes any coercion” after President Claudia Sheinbaum announced higher duties on countries with which Mexico has no trade agreements. “These are not coercive measures and they are not against China ... they are not against any country in particular,” Sheinbaum told reporters, adding there would be talks with Beijing this week. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged trading partners to increase duties on China. The White House has said Chinese producers are abusing a free-trade deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada to send goods northward via Mexico, tariff-free. Sheinbaum insisted Mexico’s new tariffs were aimed at boosting domestic production. – AFP

JAKARTA: Indonesian authorities have seized a small section of the world’s largest nickel mine for encroaching on forest areas without permission. The Weda Bay Nickel concession, which has long been criticised by environmental and Indigenous rights groups for its effects on the surrounding forest, spans 45,000 hectares on Halmahera island. Authorities have now seized nearly 150 hectares that encroached into forest areas without obtaining a licence, Anang Supriatna, spokesman for Indonesia’s Attorney-General’s Office, told AFP. “The taskforce has taken over the area by sealing it, and the land will be returned to the government,” he added. Weda Bay Nickel is a joint venture of Indonesia’s Antam and Singapore-based Strand Minerals, whose shares are divided between French mining giant Eramet and Chinese steel major Tsingshan. In a statement, Eramet said the area seized was “a quarry producing rocks for construction materials and maintenance”, and mining operations were not affected. Weda Bay Nickel said they were working with the authorities to clarify all existing permits. “We remain committed to taking full responsibility for any potential breaches and to implementing corrective actions,” a company statement said. The seizure comes as Indonesia’s government examines potential forestry regulation violations across several industries, including the palm oil and mining sectors. The concession, which says it accounted for 17% of global nickel production in 2023, has long been the target of criticism for its environmental impact. An AFP investigation this year showed its impact on members of one of the country’s last isolated hunter-gatherer communities – the Hongana Manyawa indigenous tribe. The community, parts of which remain uncontacted, says the forest they have long relied on for food and shelter is being destroyed by deforestation and environmental degradation linked to the mine. o Authorities take over 150 hectares that encroached into forest areas

A truck loading earth containing nickel ore on Halmahera island. – REUTERSPIC

Nickel is central to Indonesia’s growth strategy. It banned ore exports in 2020 to capture more of the value chain. The country is both the world’s largest producer and home to the biggest-known reserves. Mining – dominated by coal and nickel – represented nearly 9% of Indonesia’s GDP in the first quarter of 2025, government data showed. – AFP

Weda Bay Nickel denies the allegations and says it is committed to “responsible mining and protecting the environment”. Activists said the seizure was unlikely to change the broader concession’s impact on local communities, and urged the government to turn the seized land over to affected residents. “If the seizure is aimed for the benefit of the people, then the people should be the ones managing it,” said Melky Nahar, coordinator of the Mining Advocacy Network environmental group.

US, China officials hold talks in Spain on trade irritants, TikTok deadline MADRID: US and Chinese officials met in Madrid yesterday to hash over longstanding trade irritants, a looming divestiture deadline for Chinese short video app TikTok and demands by Washington that G7 and European allies impose tariffs on China to halt its purchases of Russian oil. The talks in the Spanish capital mark the fourth time in four months that American Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have met with Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng in European cities to try to keep a fractured US-China trade relationship from collapsing under President Donald Trump’s tariffs. rare-earth minerals from China to the United States. Trump has approved the extension of current US tariff rates on Chinese goods, totaling about 55%, until Nov 10. Trade experts said there was little likelihood of a substantial breakthrough in the talks hosted by Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has sought to improve ties with Beijing in recent years. The most likely result of the Madrid talks is seen as another extension of a deadline for the popular TikTok app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest its American operations by Sept 17 or face a US shutdown. Trump last month launched a TikTok account. TikTok has not been discussed in previous rounds of US-China trade talks in Geneva, London and Stockholm. national security concerns over TikTok, and a lifting of restrictions on Chinese purchases of American soybeans and reduction of fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods, and the Madrid discussions may help lay groundwork for such a meeting, Cutler said. But she said resolving core US economic complaints about China, including its demands that China shift its economic model toward more domestic consumption and rely less on state-subsidised exports, could take years. “Frankly, I don’t think China is in any rush to do an agreement where they don’t get substantial concessions on export controls and lower tariffs, which are their key priorities,” Cutler said. But the source said the issue’s public inclusion as an agenda item on the Treasury’s announcement of the talks gives the Trump administration political cover for another extension, which may annoy both Republicans and Democrats in Congress who mandated TikTok’s sale to a US entity to reduce national security risks. Wendy Cutler, a former USTR trade negotiator and head of the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington, said she expected more substantial “deliverables”to be saved for a potential meeting between Trump and China President Xi Jinping later this year, perhaps at an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Seoul at the end of next month. These may include a final deal to resolve US “And I don’t see the United States in a position to make major concessions on either, unless there’s some breakthrough on its demands to China.” – Reuters The three officials, along with China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, last met in Stockholm in July where they agreed in principle to extend for 90 days a trade truce that sharply reduced triple-digit retaliatory tariffs on both sides and restarted the flow of A source familiar with the Trump administration’s discussions on TikTok’s future said that a deal was not expected, but that the deadline would be extended for a fourth time since Trump took office in January.