Nickel Asia posts lower income

MANILA, Philippines - Listed miner Nickel Asia Corp. posted a seven percent decrease in its net income in 2013 despite higher ore shipments on weak nickel prices.       

In a regulatory filing yesterday, the company reported a net income of P2.05 billion last year, down from P2.21 billion in 2012.      

Earnings per share stood at P0.82 in 2013 versus P0.88 in 2012.       

Revenues in 2013 fell four percent to P11.11 billion from P11.61 billion in 2012.       

The firm’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell four percent to P4.9 billion in 2013 from P6.8 billion in the previous year.       

In 2013, the company’s ore shipments rose 19 percent to 14 million wet metric tons (WMT) from 11.7 million WMT in 2012.       

As shipment volume increased, the company’s total operating costs and    expenses rose slightly to P7.67 billion in 2013 from P7.58 billion in 2012. Costs and expenses per WMT of ore sold fell to P548 in 2013 from  P646 in 2012.       

Of the total volume of ore shipped in 2013, 3.59 million WMT was  saprolite ore and 10.41 million WMT were limonite ore. In 2012, the company shipped out 4.24 million WMT saprolite ore and 7.40 million WMT limonite ore.       

Of the total limonite ore shipped out in 2013,  3.4 million WMT was  delivered to the Coral Bay hydrometallurgical processing plant, while 874,000 WMT was delivered to the new Taganito plant  which had its first commercial shipment in December 2013.       

“Despite weak market conditions for commodities in general, our  company has again managed to deliver record shipments last year,” said Gerard Brimo, president and CEO.       

Benchmarked against London Metal Exchange (LME) prices, realized nickel price in 2013 applicable to the company’s shipments of medium and high grade saprolite ore to Japan and of limonite ore to the Coral Bay and Taganito processing plants, averaged at $6.91 per pound of payable nickel, as against $8.10 per pound of payable nickel in 2012.        

The company’s shipments of low-grade saprolite and limonite ore in 2013 were paid $20.03 per WMT on the average compared to $24.40 per WMT in the previous year.