Mixed Hydroxide Precipitate (MHP, Nickel-Cobalt Hydroxide Intermediate)

HPAL nickel-cobalt hydroxide intermediate, paid as a percentage of the LME nickel price with cobalt paid separately

Mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) is the intermediate that high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) plants make from laterite ore, and refiners take it on to nickel sulphate, nickel cathode or Class 1 nickel. In an October 2025 ruling, US Customs described one MHP from Türkiye and Indonesia as a co-precipitated mixture of nickel and cobalt hydroxides with small amounts of manganese, magnesium and aluminium, to be refined into Class 1 nickel. It is sold on the metal it contains: Fastmarkets publishes a daily MHP payable indicator as a percentage of the London Metal Exchange nickel price, CIF China, Japan and South Korea, launched in October 2022; SMM publishes an FOB price for Indonesian MHP in US dollars per MT of contained nickel; and cobalt is settled as a second payable, with Nickel 28, a partner in Papua New Guinea's Ramu operation, reporting payable terms for both metals at high levels in the second quarter of 2026. Exporters declare MHP under HS 7501.20, other intermediate products of nickel metallurgy, and China has a national line, 7501.2010, for intermediate products of nickel hydrometallurgy; the same US ruling, N353878, placed that MHP under 3824.99 in the US tariff rather than Chapter 28, so the importing country's line is confirmed per contract. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations under HS 7501.20 total USD 4.60 billion and about 1.71 million MT across 31 reporters, a heading that also covers other intermediates: Indonesia declared USD 3.95 billion and 1.56 million MT, over 99% of the value to China, and Türkiye USD 131 million and 54,700 MT, mostly to China and India. Indonesia commissioned its first HPAL plant in May 2021, and one HPAL plant in the Morowali park has a nameplate capacity of 60,000 MT of nickel in MHP and has produced since November 2021. Ramu, run by Metallurgical Corporation of China, produced 33,007 MT of nickel and 3,099 MT of cobalt contained in MHP in 2025 at 101% of design capacity, and Türkiye's Gördes HPAL plant dewaters its MHP in filter presses and has a first-phase capacity of 10,000 MT of nickel a year.

The buyer is a nickel sulphate or battery precursor refiner, a Class 1 nickel refinery or a trader with refinery offtake, and the offer is a payable percentage for nickel and for cobalt on a stated assay, moisture and lot. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers MHP from HPAL producer and trader allocations against an independent assay of nickel, cobalt, manganese, magnesium and moisture with umpire terms, the producer's certificate of analysis and a certificate of origin. Indonesian supply follows ore policy: the 2026 RKAB ore quota was set at 260–270 million wet MT against 379 million wet MT approved for 2025, extra quota applied for in July 2026 is tied to domestic smelting capacity, and an export duty covering MHP, NPI, ferronickel and matte, approved in principle in March 2026, was postponed on 11 May 2026. Battery-chain buyers read the file closely. The US Department of Labor lists nickel from Indonesia as produced with forced labour; the EU Forced Labour Regulation applies from 14 December 2027; and under the US Department of Energy's interpretation of a foreign entity of concern, a covered government controls an entity when it holds 25% or more of its board seats, voting rights or equity, the test the US clean vehicle credit applied to battery minerals until the credit ended for vehicles acquired after 30 September 2025. Tailings and power are the other questions: an HPAL project in the Morowali park is designed with dry-stack tailings, and Ramu faced a slurry spill in August 2019 and, in 2020, a K18 billion lawsuit from local people and the provincial government. The file therefore follows the OECD five-step due diligence framework, with the plant, its tailings method and its power source named. Pack, moisture basis and lot size are confirmed per contract, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Send the nickel and cobalt payables you work to, the moisture limit, tonnage and discharge port, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.