Nickel Asia books 93% higher H1 profit on higher prices, sales volumes

MANILA, Philippines — Nickel Asia Corp. nearly doubled its earnings in the first half as higher nickel ore prices and stronger sales volumes boosted its core mining business. In a disclosure on Thursday, the company said attributable net income reached P4.06 billion in the six months ending June, up 93 percent from P2.10 billion a year earlier. READ: Nickel Asia profit drops 26% in Q1 That stronger performance was on the back of higher average ore prices, increased shipments from its operating mines and a stronger peso-dollar exchange rate, Nickel Asia said. Its operating mines sold a combined 8.65 million wet metric tons (WMT) of nickel ore during the January-to-June period, up 10 percent from a year ago. Ore exports climbed 21 percent to 4.76 million WMT, while average export prices rose 12 percent to $42.86 per WMT. “The nickel supply chain has held up well despite the lingering Middle East conflict, and that resilience helped us grow even against higher oil and input costs. We remain bullish on nickel prices,” Nickel Asia president and CEO Martin Zamora said. According to Nickel Asia, its weighted average ore price increased by 23 percent to $29.25 per WMT from $23.87 per WMT a year ago. It also realized a higher average exchange rate of P60.85 per US dollar, up 8 percent from last year. Meanwhile, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization climbed 67 percent to P8.68 billion. READ: Nickel Asia to buy 20% of Kazakhstan copper mine Nickel Asia said revenue from the sale of saprolite and limonite ore jumped 45 percent to P15.39 billion from P10.59 billion. Deliveries of limonite ore to the company’s affiliated high-pressure acid leach plants slipped slightly to 3.88 million WMT, although realized prices rose to $8.07 per pound of payable nickel from $6.96 a year earlier. Meanwhile, the company’s renewable energy business continued to expand in the first half. NAC Energy increased power generation by 68 percent to 213,186 megawatt-hours following the energization of the first phase of its Leyte solar project. Looking ahead, Zamora said the company expects to increase its renewable energy operating capacity to about 600 megawatts by the end of 2027. /pai