Nickel Asia Q1 profit falls on lower metal prices

MANILA, Philippines – Lower nickel prices weighed on the earnings of the largest producer of the metal in the country.

Nickel Asia Corp. reported on Tuesday, May 8, that its attributable net income for the first quarter of the year fell 33% to P285.4 million from P428 million in 2011.

This as revenues went down 16% to P1.75 billion from P2.07 billion.

Nickel Asia said the volume of its shipments increased during the period, but this failed to offset the decline in metal prices.

It said it shipped 1.82 million wet metric tons of nickel ore in the first quarter, up 28% year on year, but realized an average price of $8.78 per pound of nickel compared to $11.63 per pound last year.

Nickel Asia president and CEO Gerard Brimo also attributed the company’s lackluster performance in the first quarter to “seasonality of our mining operations.”

“Typically the first quarter is our slowest quarter,” he said. “As in previous years, we will see a pickup in shipments in the second quarter, in particular, of the higher margin product such as high-grade saprolite ore and low nickel-high iron ore varieties.” – Rappler.com