Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc. said Monday its net income last year rose 9 percent year-on-year to P2.2 billion as its mine in Palawan started commercial production and export of nickel ore in the fourth quarter.
“Our performance during the year showed our company’s ability to evolve and make further progress against our strategic priorities,” said Dante Bravo, FNI President.
Bravo said that FNI also completed last year the acquisition of a 20 percent stake in Guangdong Century Tsingshan Nickel Industry Co. Ltd (GCTN), the owner of a 33-hectare rotary kiln-electric furnace processing facility in China that caters to customers from within and outside Guangdong’s Economic and Technological Development Zones.
The growth in net income came even as revenues decreased 13 percent year-over-year to P6.7 billion due to adverse weather, partially offset by a rise in medium-grade ore prices and a favorable foreign exchange impact when compared to 2021.
Total shipped volume declined 24 percent to 3.735 million wet metric tons resulting from weather events such as more rain days that affected the production of nickel ore. Overall product mix was 76 percent low-grade ore and 24 percent medium-grade ore with an average realized price slightly lower by 0.3 percent from prior year to $31.68 per WMT.
“Moving forward, we are very excited about expanding our nickel ore production by 20 percent this year with the addition of our Palawan mine with an annual production capacity of 1.5 million WMT that would complement our Surigao mine’s 7.5 million WMT. We are also on track with our medium-term strategy which includes the construction of a steel processing plant in Mariveles, Bataan and its commercial production, and the development of a nearby port,” Bravo said.
