Morowali Industrial Park

Workers and advocacy organizations report poor working conditions, with a number of deaths and injuries from industrial accidents.

The country banned export of unprocessed nickel ores around 2013,[2] and has signed several deals with battery manufacturers.

[2] Also in 2022, the administration of president Joko Widodo relaxed environmental and worker safety regulations to attract foreign investment.

[10] The park's estimated total capacity for stainless steel production was 3 million metric tonnes per year in 2020.

[16] Companies began to operate starting in April 2015, with president Joko Widodo inaugurating a smelter on 28 May 2015.

[6] On 24 December 2023, an explosion occurred at a Tsingshan-owned nickel smelter inside the facility, killing at least 18 people and injuring 44 others.

Local residents also experience frequent disruptions in power, phone, and internet services due to oversaturation.

[2] Large numbers of commuting workers have also overloaded local roads and caused daily traffic jams lasting hours at a time.

[24] There were around 28,500 employees working at IMIP in August 2018, of which around 3,100 were foreign workers, and an additional 50,000 indirect jobs were estimated to be related to the industrial park.