Nickel Asia income up 9%

With a big enough room for expansion despite competition from Indonesian producers, Nickel Asia Corp. yesterday said its full-year net income rose by 9 percent to P3 billion in 2018.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) increased 11 percent to P7.6 billion.

“Despite the challenges brought about by the increasing ore supply from Indonesia, we are very pleased by the company’s performance during the year,” company president Martin Antonio G. Zamora said in a statement.

“As we look at the medium-term prospects of our company, we believe that LME-linked nickel has the most potential to outperform the commodity market given the evolution of battery technology,” Zamora said. “We are fortunate that a sizeable segment of our market is able to capture this.”

LME, the London Metal Exchange, is presently the world’s leading market for nonferrous metals like nickel. —RONNEL W. DOMINGO