In a business conference in Makati Trade Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba said nickel ore was mostly mined from Caraga and Mimaropa, making these regions a suitable location for the RIICs.
The RIIC initiative, one of the key points under the Inclusive Filipinnovation and Entrepreneurship Roadmap in 2018, aims to gather government, academe and industries together for research and development (R&D) to promote innovation.
“They (RIICs) are actually connecting the different stakeholders [and] players in our entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem,” Aldaba said.
Aldaba considered nickel as a significant portion of mining and quarrying sector, which has been growing 4.5 percent on average for the past 9 years. The sector grew 1 percent and contributed 1 percent to the overall growth domestic products in 2018, she said.
Nickel is being used in over 300,000 products in the fields of industrial, military, marine and construction, among others, Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA) Chairman Emeritus Clarence Pimentel, Jr. said in the same event. PNIA added that electric vehicles have also been consuming a big chunk of nickel supply in the country.
“Electric vehicles are the future, there is a growing market and the drive to make the industry sustainable for all sectors is very significant now,” Electric Vehicles Association of the Philippines President Edmund Araga said.
Aldaba said nickel exports has been rising from 2012 to 2014, but started declining by 2015 up to present. In 2018, nickel exports, which mainly comprised of nickel ore and concentrates and nickel oxide sinters and other intermediate products, dropped 30 percent to $842.6 million from $1.2 billion in the previous year, she pointed out.
On the other hand, nickel imports has been growing since 2014, except in 2016, she said. The nickel imports, she said, jumped 122 percent to $60 million in 2018 from $27 million a year ago.
There has been a “growing importance” for nickel powders and flakes imports, whose market share rose to 71 percent in 2018 from 22 percent in 2012, she said. In 2018, nickel powders and flakes imports grew more than threefold to $60 million from $18.8 million a year earlier, she added.
“It is very important for us to formulate a roadmap that would transform and upgrade the nickel industry, from nickel ore concentrates to higher value products, and this would allow us to move up in global value chain,” she said.
The Philippines is the second largest producer of nickel in the world.