LISTED mining firm Nickel Asia Corp. (NAC) reported a decline in attributable net income (net of minority interests) at P2.49 billion in January to September from P7.98 billion last year.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization dropped from P14.12 billion to P5.92 billion year on year.
NAC’s bottom figure from January to September this year is net of a P163.5-million equity loss out of its 22.5-percent investment in Taganito HPAL Nickel Corp. and its 10-percent equity interest in Coral Bay Nickel Corp.
Such amount is lesser than the P614.6 million in equity income recorded for the first three quarters of 2014. Also, the company’s topline declined from P21.15 billion to P13.11 billion for the two periods in review.
The decrease in both the revenues and profits was triggered by weak costs of nickel since the beginning of 2015. In spite of low prices, however, NAC President and CEO Gerard H. Brimo said their “operations have remained profitable and our shipment volumes continue to grow.”
As of end-September this year, the volume of nickel ore sold from the firm’s four operating mines aggregated to 15.96 million wet metric tons (WMT) versus 14.26 million WMT during the time in 2014.
This was mainly attributed to direct ore exports hike, mostly to China, from 8.87 million WMT to 10.34 million WMT.
Ore shipments to the HPAL plants, likewise, grew from 5.38 million WMT to 5.62 million WMT.
Of the 2015 total volume of ore deliveries, 6.02 million WMT was saprolite ore and 9.95 million WMT was limonite ore.
The latter includes shipments of limonite to both the Coral Bay and Taganito processing facilities.
As per the record, NAC delivered 4.79 million WMT and 9.47 million WMT of saprolite and limonite ores, respectively, for the comparable period a year ago.
Price-wise, the mining company realized an average of $5.74 per pound of payable nickel on its shipments of ore to the two HPAL plants during the period analyzed for the current year. The pricing of which is still linked to the LME.
This is lower than an average cost of $7.87 per pound of payable nickel sold during the time in 2014.
In line with export sales, an average price of $22.65 per WMT was achieved compared to $46.85 per WMT last year.
“It appears that prices may have already bottomed out and we now see some price support as a result of a gradual withdrawal of metal from LME warehouses,” Brimo said.