Nickel Asia shipments up 130% in value

MANILA, Philippines - Listed nickel producer Nickel Asia Corp. registered a 130 percent increase in the estimated value of shipments in 2014 on a significant increase in mined volume and improved ore prices.

In an exchange filing yesterday, Nickel Asia reported a total estimated shipment value of P23.7 billion ending 2014, against the P10.3 billion shipped in 2013.

The total volume of nickel ore delivered from the company’s four operating mines rose 28 percent to 17.9 million wet metric tons (WMT) in 2014 from 14 million WMT in 2013.

The company’s Taganito mine, now its largest operation, accounted for 40 percent of the total shipments.

The mine shipped out a total of 2.27 million WMT of saprolite ore and 4.82 million WMT id limonite ore.

The Rio Tuba mine accounted for 33 percent of the total shipments, delivering 2.27 million WMT of saprolite ore and 3.70 million WMT of limonite ore.

The Hinatuan mine produced 3.15 million WMT of limonite ore and 314,000 WMT of saprolite ore, while the Cagdianao mine produced a total of 461,000 WMT of limonite ore and 890,000 WMT of saprolite ore.

The company also benefitted from the existing ore export ban in Indonesia as the prohibition on outbound shipment from the neighboring Southeast Asian nation has led to significantly higher ore prices in 2014.

The average realized price received for 10.47 million WMT of ore sold to Japanese and Chinese customers stood at $45.11 per WMT in 2014. This compares to an average price of $21.28 per WMT in 2013 for a total of 9.72 million WMT of ore sold during the period.

The average price of low-grade limonite sold to both the Coral Bay and Taganito plants continues to be linked to prices in the London Metal Exchange (LME), Nickel Asia said.

The company realized an average of $7.69 per pound of payable nickel from 7.41 million WMT sold in 2014. This compares to an average price of $6.70 per pound of payable nickel from 5.34 million WMT sold in 2013.

“We are extremely satisfied with our achievements in 2014. We are able to surpass our sales targets and capitalize on the strong prices which prevailed for most part of the year,” said Gerard Brimo, Nickel Asia president and CEO.