The United States, Japan, and the Philippines will hold a trilateral summit on April 11 in Washington, with attempts to strengthen nickel supply chains potentially on the agenda.
US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. are scheduled to participate in the summit, which will focus on economic security.
"The US and Japan are collaborating to diversify non-Chinese supply chain for battery materials," a market participant told Argus, following a critical minerals agreement signed in March 2023 for cooperation between the two countries on supply chain development.
"Forming alliances with resource-rich countries to feed the US market has been formalized by the Japanese ministry of trade and industry (Meti) and is a key element of the Japanese battery strategy," the participant added. "The Philippines is expected to play a significant role in the formation of this new supply chain, as it appears to be the best solution for sourcing non-Chinese nickel that qualifies for the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
"The Philippines is a major producer of nickel in Southeast Asia, unlike its neighbor Indonesia, which is "heavily dominated by Chinese investment.
"The Philippines welcomes foreign investment that brings EV technologies," said the country's Secretary for Trade and Industry Alfredo Pascual on a past visit to Tokyo. "EV battery manufacturing, for example, can make use of our abundant mineral ore reserves of green metals such as nickel, copper and cobalt. We prefer that these ores be processed in the Philippines and value added to them before we export semi-finished or finished products.
"Japan and the Philippines already have strong ties on nickel production, with Japanese metals producer Sumitomo Metal Mining operating two nickel high-pressure acid leaching smelters in the Philippines.
The US and Japan will also hold separate talks during the summit, according to Meti Minister Ken Saito on April 9. A new bilateral ministerial dialogue aims to discuss possible collaboration on their major decarbonization strategies, involving the US IRA and Japan's green transformation policy, though details were undisclosed.
