Nickel Asia Corp., a listed natural resources development company, said Wednesday net income last year dropped 53 percent to P3.7 billion due to lower nickel ore prices following Indonesia’s decision to increase production and its share in the loss of two nickel and cobalt processing plants.
Nickel Asia booked a loss of P1.0 billion from its equity interests in the processing plants of Coral Bay Nickel Corp. and Taganito HPAL Nickel Corp., a reversal from a gain of P900 million in 2022. The profitability of the two processing plants were hurt by lower prices of nickel and cobalt.
Revenue from the sale of ore declined by 16 percent to P21.4 billion, with lower nickel prices negating the 3 percent increase in its mine’s production volume of 16.5 million wet metric tons.
Nickel Asia exported 8.9 million WMT of saprolite and limonite ore, up from 8.1 million WMT. The average price last year, however, was lower at USD30.59 per WMT from USD39.39 per WMT in 2022. It also delivered 7.6 million WMT of limonite ore to the Coral Bay and Taganito HPAL plants, realizing an average price of USD14.66 per WMT. In 2022, it delivered 7.8 million WMT at USD18.72 per WMT. As a result, the weighted average nickel ore sales price during the period decreased by 20 percent to USD23.30 per WMT.
The company used an exchange rate of P55.78 per US dollar for nickel ore sales, a 2 percent increase from P54.90 forex rate in 2022.
