HIGHER sales volumes and prices pushed up the overall revenues of Nickel Asia Corp. (NAC) in the first three months of 2015, to P3.12 billion from P1.7 billion in the same period last year.
“We started the year on a high note with a big jump in shipments during the first quarter,” said Gerard H. Brimo, president and chief executive officer of NAC.
The strong performance was also attributed to the uptrend in nickel prices in the second quarter from fairly low levels during the early part of 2014.
The listed company’s attributable net income (net of minority interests), likewise, rose from P177.1 million to P675.8 million, up 281 percent year on year.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization stood at P1.56 billion from P795.5 million during the periods in review.
NAC’s net income as of March 31 also has improved, inclusive of P140.3 million and P72.5 million in equity income from Taganito HPAL Nickel Corp. and Coral Bay Nickel Corp., respectively.
The mining firm, which has a 22.5-percent investment in the former, earned P11.7 million in the same period last year as the newly commissioned plant underwent fine-tuning.
But there was no equity contribution from its 10-percent-owned CBNC since the company’s direct equity interest just took effect in April 2014. From January to March 2015, sales volume of nickel ore aggregated 3.49 million wet metric tons (WMT), 32 percent higher than 2.65 million WMT the previous year, on the back of increases from all four mines of the company.
While they usually have no shipments during this time of the year, both the Taganaan and Cagdianao mines still managed to deliver 160,000 WMT and 50,000 WMT of nickel ore, respectively, due to a shorter rainy season in the southern part of the country.
Of the total volume of ore sold, shipments to the two HPAL plants hit 1.99 million WMT from 1.80 million WMT during the two comparable periods.
Deliveries of ore to China hiked from 278,000 WMT to 1.08 million WMT, as ore shipments to Japan reached 313,000 WMT compared to 566,000 WMT in 2014.
In Australia an additional 111,000 WMT of ore were also shipped in the first three-month period of the year.
In terms of prices regarding the sales to the HPAL plants, which are still linked to those in London Metal Exchange, NAC achieved an average of $6.50 each pound of payable nickel versus $6.68 per pound of payable nickel during the same period last year.
Export sales-wise, it realized an average price of $32.44 per WMT, much higher than the prior year’s $21.98.
“Following the momentum established in the first three months, overall shipment volumes should be stronger this year,” Brimo said.