Central Sulawesi
Province scarred by 2018 Palu earthquake (4,340 dead), now hosting IMIP nickel complex with 600% growth since 2015.
On September 28, 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck the neck of Central Sulawesi's Minahasa Peninsula. The tsunami reached Palu Bay within six minutes; liquefaction swallowed entire neighborhoods. By the time the disaster ended, 4,340 people had died and 170,000 were displaced, with economic losses exceeding $1.3 billion. Yet even as Palu rebuilt, a different kind of transformation was accelerating on the province's eastern coast.
The Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) grew from farmland into a $30 billion nickel processing complex spanning 2,000+ hectares with its own seaport and airport. Morowali's economy expanded 600% from 2015 to 2022. The park now hosts over 50 manufacturers and employs 100,000 workers, generating 11.5 million tonnes of tailings annually—a figure projected to reach 47 million tonnes by 2026. A December 2023 furnace explosion killed 21 workers, exposing the human cost beneath the production statistics.
The same geological forces that created Central Sulawesi's nickel deposits also threaten to destroy what the industry has built. The IMIP sits on the Matano Fault, where research suggests a surface-rupturing earthquake is 'already due.' By 2026, Central Sulawesi will test whether industrial growth can outpace seismic risk—or whether another disaster awaits.