Nickel Asia Corp. (NAC) suffered a 55 percent drop in its attributable net income in the first half of the year at P1.7 billion compared to last year’s P3.8 billion.
The company said the drop was due to lower metal prices of nickel and cobalt.
NAC also booked an 8 percent decline in revenues for the period to P10.9 billion from P11.8 billion.
The company said its operating mines sold a combined 7.52 million wet metric tons (WMT) of nickel ore, an 8 percent improvement from the same period last year.
NAC exported 3.66 million WMT of saprolite and limonite ore at an average price of $28.22 per WMT in the first half of the year compared to the 3.12 million WMT at $42.05 per WMT in the same period in 2022.
The company delivered a total of 3.86 million WMT of limonite ore to the Coral Bay and Taganito processing plants, realizing an average price of $10.13 per pound of payable nickel compared to the 3.83 million WMT at $12.52 per pound of payable nickel in the same period in 2022.
As a result, NAC’s weighted average nickel ore sales price during the period, plummeted by 26 percent to $22.32 per WMT from $30.03 per WMT last year but the company benefited from the 5 percent in foreign exchange as US dollar for the period was at P55.33 against first half 2022’s P52.56.
“We may have already seen the bottom of nickel ore prices for this year in the second quarter. The recent pledges from China to bolster their economy will provide a boost to their economic situation and will contribute to drive the demand for Indonesia’s incremental nickel supply. The bright spot remains to be the positive electric vehicle adoption trend which has remained strong,” said Martin Antonio Zamora, NAC president and chief executive officer, in a statement.
Zamora said global government policies that are supportive of the EV industry also bring a positive outlook for nickel miners.
