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At Aquinore. UK. Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Tuesday, May 14th, and this is your

F-T-nee's briefing. Roaring Kitty is back, if those words don't mean anything to you, we'll

unpack that one in a bit. And Russia's new defense minister is an economist.

Plus Western carmakers are giving Indonesia a second look.

Stelantis has come to the view that you cannot build the electric vehicle

battery supply chain and secure the nickel that you need to build the

EVs without Indonesia.

I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you need to start your day. The carmaker, the maker Stilantis is in talks to invest in Indonesian nickel.

The mineral is a key component in electric vehicles.

Indonesia dominates the nickel market but has been struggling to get Western

auto companies to invest. I'm joined now by the F.T.'s commodities correspondent Harry

Dempsey. Hi Harry. Hi Harry. Hi Mark. All right so what are some of the

details of this potential deal? So Stil, which owns Jeep, Fiat and Chrysler, is in talks with Valle

Indonesia, which is a mining company, and Huayu Kobolu a Chinese processing company about setting up a

processing plant for Indonesian nickel. It would be a big vote of confidence in

Indonesian nickel which has come under huge criticism

for putting mining waste into sea, deforestation, and high levels of carbon emissions.

But it really does signify that Stellantis has come to the view as other

automakers are doing, which is that you cannot build the electric vehicle battery supply chain

and secure the nickel that you need to build the

...