China's Huayou ships first MHP shipment from Indonesia JV

BEIJING (Reuters) - Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt's Indonesian joint venture shipped its first batch of mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP), a product used to be processed into nickel and cobalt chemicals for EV batteries, to China's Ningbo port on Monday.

PT Huayue, jointly set up with Tsingshan Holding Group and China Molybdenum Co, said in a statement that it is carrying a cargo with around 9,500 tonnes of MHP from Tsingshan Morowali port.

The venture, which started trial production in end-November, has the capacity to produce 60,000 tonnes of nickel and 7,800 tonnes of cobalt per year.

The $1.28 billion project is closely watched in Indonesia and uses high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) technology to produce nickel and cobalt.

Other HPAL projects operated by Chinese firms including Lygend Resources' nickel and cobalt smelting project that had delivered its first shipment of MHP in June, 2021.

(Reporting by Min Zhang and Dominique Patton; editing by Jason Neely)