According to CoinMeta, Indonesia has significantly lowered the benchmark price for low-grade nickel ore, providing relief to local processors that are under cost pressure due to the US-Iran war. Under the ministerial regulations that took effect on Friday, the formula for calculating the mineral benchmark price (hpm) has been modified to reduce the minimum price payable for low-grade ore. At the new level, the cost of 1.2% nickel ore has almost halved. This change will benefit high-pressure acid leaching (hpal) plants, which process low-grade nickel ore into chemicals used in the electric vehicle battery industry. Due to the soaring prices of sulfur, a key reagent, caused by the Middle East war, (hpal) plants have been overwhelmed, forcing some to consider joint production cuts. A large amount of new (hpal) production capacity is set to come online this year and next, which may put even more pressure on nickel prices, which fell to their lowest of the year on Wednesday.