Nickel Asia sold an aggregate of 15.29 million wet metric tons of nickel ore in the first nine months as against 15.55 million WMT in the same period last year.

Nickel Asia Corporation this week said they booked a net income of only P1.92 billion from January to September of 2019. This was roughly 43 percent lower than the P3.37 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Likewise, the company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to P4.60 billion as against P6.07 billion in the prior year.

A disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange said the drop in the Company’s earnings was mainly due to a combination of a weaker average nickel ore price, a stronger peso and its share of losses from investment in both the Coral Bay and Taganito processing plants.

The company’s total share of losses from its 10 percent stake in the two processing plants amounted to P85 million, a substantial turnaround from the P617 million share of earnings in 2018.

Losses stemmed from the two plants was mainly driven by the huge fall in cobalt prices, a by-product of both plants.

The average realized cobalt price for the first nine months of 2019 was $16.46 per pound of payable cobalt compared to $39.05 for the same period last year.

“The Company was not able to fully benefit from the effect of higher prices during the period under review as the run-up in ore prices only started at the latter part of the third quarter,” said Nickel Asia’s president Martin Antonio G. Zamora.

“However, the Company expects a strong performance for the remainder of the year due to the higher prices contracted on its remaining shipments coupled with the anticipated return to profitability for the two processing plants.”

Due to the steady appreciation of the peso vis-à-vis the US dollar, forex losses in the first nine months of 2019 reached P105 million compared to a forex gain of P647 million during the same period in 2018.

Concerning mining operations, the company sold an aggregate of 15.29 million wet metric tons of nickel ore in the first nine months as against 15.55 million WMT in the same period last year.

Of the total volume of ore shipped, 7.47 million WMT were cornered by saprolite ore while 7.82 million WMT were comprised by limonite ore, which included 6.34 million WMT delivered to both the Coral Bay and Taganito processing plants.

A year ago, total volume of saprolite stood at 8.55 million WMT, while limonite shipments amounted to 7.00 million WMT. A total of 5.78 million WMT of limonite were delivered to the two processing plants.

In terms of price, Nickle Asia realized an average of $5.96 per pound of payable nickel on its shipments of ore to the two HPAL plants for the period, the pricing of which is linked to the LME. This compares to an average price of $6.21 per pound of payable nickel sold during the same period last year.