The Indonesian Nickel Miners Association (APNI) has welcomed the government's decision to establish a Strategic Mineral and Commodity Exchange (BMKS), while outlining several conditions to ensure the exchange's operational design genuinely benefits domestic producers.
APNI Chairman Nanan Soekarna stated that the plan marks a turning point for Indonesia's nickel price sovereignty, confirming the direction of the Indonesia Metal Exchange (IMEX) concept that APNI has been advocating since 2023. "Indonesia must no longer be a price taker for commodities that we produce ourselves, in the largest volumes in the world," he emphasised.
At the same time, APNI stressed the need to meet several technical criteria before the exchange becomes fully operational, urging management to prioritise physical trading, transaction reporting and actual delivery before introducing derivative instruments. APNI also called for assurance of the exchange's governance independence from short-term commercial interests, and for producer association representatives to be directly involved in technical committees and pricing mechanism formulation.
APNI also highlighted the need for alignment between the Mineral Benchmark Price (HPM) and the Indonesia Reference Price methodology, noting that this is crucial to prevent dual pricing references that could confuse domestic nickel industry participants.
Under Law No. 4 of 2026, oversight of the strategic commodity exchange has been transferred from Bappebti to the Financial Services Authority (OJK). The government and the BMKS Task Force are targeting full operations by 1 January 2027.
