Listed mining firm Nickel Asia Corp. said Monday first-quarter net income slipped 8 percent year-on-year to P970 million due mainly to foreign exchange losses of P202 million on financial assets.
Mining revenues rose 5.7 percent to P3.51 billion, driven by the combination of favorable exchange rates and better prices on ore export sales.
Nickel Asia said operating mines sold a combined 2.39 million wet metric tons of nickel ore, which remained stable compared to last year. It exported 604,000 WMT of saprolite and limonite ore at the average price of $50.37/WMT during the period against 651,000 WMT at $47.48/WMT year-on-year.
It also delivered 1.79 million WMT of limonite ore to the Coral Bay and Taganito high pressure acid leach (HPAL) plants at a higher average price of $11.98 per pound of payable nickel for this quarter. However, the average price for the deliveries to the HPAL plants decreased to $18.84/WMT from $19.58/WMT due to weaker cobalt prices. As a result, the weighted average nickel ore sales price during the period decreased by 1.4 percent to $26.80/WMT from $27.19/WMT last year.
The average exchange rate stood at P54.80 per US dollar from nickel ore sales, a 6.4-percent year-on-year increase.
“We remain bullish on the nickel sector. Despite the current nickel surplus resulting from the ramp-up in Indonesian nickel production, the accelerating pace of electric vehicle adoption, evidenced by the 25 percent year-on-year increase in electric car sales for the first quarter of 2023, will continue to be the main driver of the nickel sector over the long-term.”
Martin Antonio G. Zamora, president and chief executive officer
