DAVAO CITY – The nickel industry in the country can expect a brighter prospect for 2020 as the global demand for this mineral is expected to increase for the manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs), Philippine Nickel Association (PNIA) executive director Cha Olea said on Friday.
Olea said in an interview on Friday that the association has been preparing for the possible boom of the electric vehicle industry as more countries, including the Philippines, have been shifting from fossil-run vehicles to more environment-friendly electricity-run vehicles to curb carbon emission.
“Ang primary component sa EV is nickel because of the batteries, the batteries are — they call it composition – include nickel, cobalt, and magnesium,” she said, adding 50% of the EVs’s batteries are made of nickel.
The executive added that manufacturing plants’ demand for stainless steel, which is also made of nickel, would also increase.
She said countries in the European Union and even the United States of America have been slowly foregoing fossil-run vehicles.
She said the European Union targets to totally eradicate carbon emission by 2030 while the US eyes to minimize carbon by offering incentives to motorists using electric vehicles.
“Nickel has a very good prospect in the future, especially that Europe’s direction by 2030 is zero carbon emission. They are shifting to electric vehicles,” she said.
She said the Philippines was one of the biggest producers of nickel in the world, producing an estimated volume of 30 million metric tons last year. Around 90 percent is exported to China while the remaining 10 percent to Japan, Australia, and EU.