Nickel Asia grows 9-month bottom line to p2.6B

Stable ore prices on the back of a strong US dollar in the first quarter of the year allowed Nickel Asia Corp. (NAC) to grow its nine-month net income by more than 160 percent to P2.62 billion from P980 million in the same period last year.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Nickel Asia said its shift to higher-value saprolite ore “resulted in a significant improvement in earnings… mainly driven by strong cobalt prices.” Cobalt is a by-product in its Coral Bay and Taganito processing plants in Palawan and Surigao del Norte, respectively.

“Despite lower ore shipments, we managed to show respectable results driven by higher prices and the impressive turnaround in the financial results of the Coral Bay and Taganito processing plants,” company president and CEO Gerard H. Brimo said.

Nickel Asia reported 14.2 million wet metric tons (WMT) of nickel ore shipments as against 15.18 million WMT a year ago due to the prolonged rainy season this year. However, the average price of both saprolite and limonite ore for the period was $16.27 per WMT, 16 percent higher than the $14.07 a year ago.