Nickel Asia net earnings fall 33% in Q1

MANILA, Philippines - Nickel Asia Corp. reported a 33-percent drop in its first quarter net earnings this year to P285.4 million, weighed down by lower nickel prices.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Nickel Asia said total revenues declined 16 percent to P1.75 billion even as sales volume grew 28 percent to 1.42 million wet metric tons.

“Because of the seasonality of our mining operations, typically the first quarter is our slowest quarter. As in previous years, we will see a pick up in shipments in the second quarter, in particular, of the higher margin products such as high-grade saprolite ore and low nickel-high iron ore varieties,” the company said.

The company realized an average price of $8.78 per pound of payable nickel compared to $11.63 per pound a year ago.

Of the total volume of ore sold, 222.6 thousand WMT of saprolite ore was shipped to Japanese customers, 655 thousand WMT of low-grade saprolite and limonite ore were shipped to Chinese customers and 941.8 thousand WMT of limonite ore was delivered to the Coral Bay hydrometallurgical processing plant.

During the quarter, shipments were made only from the Rio Tuba mine and stockpiled ore from the Taganito mine.

Shipments from the company’s two other mines, Cagdianao and Taganaan, typically start in the second quarter following the end of the rainy season in the southern part of the country and the resulting resumption of mining operations.

Nickel Asia said total operating cash cost went up 34 percent to P948.3 million due to increased shipment volumes.