Nickel miner Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc. (FNI) registered a 34 percent drop in consolidated net income to P417.4 million for the first half of 2022 from the P640.8 million earned in the same period last year.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said the results are driven by the April to June mining operations of wholly-owned subsidiary Platinum Group Metals Corporation (PGMC) in Surigao del Norte, with incremental contributions from PGMC International Limited (PIL).
PIL is a wholly-owned subsidiary established to facilitate relations with Chinese customers for the trading of mineral products.
FNI said revenues also slid 15 percent to P2.21 billion for the period ended June 30, 2022 compared to the P2.61 billion posted during the same period last year due to lower volume of ore shipped.
The Group encountered more rainy days this period totaling 128 rainy days compared to 105 rainy days during the same period in 2021.
It only managed to complete 19 shipments of nickel ore totaling 1.035 million wet metric tons (WMT) during the six-month period ended June 30, 2022, compared to 32 shipments totaling 1.740 WMT during the same period last year.
“We are hoping for better weather in the third quarter, during the peak of PGMC’s mining season that normally delivers more than 60 percent of FNI’s revenues for the year,” said FNI President Dante R. Bravo.
Despite the lower volume sold for the period ended June 2022, the Group benefited from the higher average realized foreign exchange rate this year at P52.60 compared to the prior period’s P48.24, augmenting revenues by a total of P177.1 million.
Nickel ore prices are also higher this year with an overall average realized nickel ore price at $39.21 per WMT, compared to last year’s period at $31.10 per WMT, topping up revenues by P405.0 million.
The resulting sales mix was 79 percent low-grade ore and 21 percent medium-grade ore in 2022 in contrast to the previous period’s mix of 84 percent low-grade ore and 16 percent medium-grade ore.
These shipments comprise 0.816 million WMT low-grade nickel ore and 0.219 million WMT medium-grade nickel ore compared to 1.465 million WMT low-grade nickel ore and 0.275 WMT medium-grade nickel ore of the same period in 2021.
“We have adjusted our 2022 shipment target to 4.0 million WMT but we still look forward to a productive and remarkable season due to the strong demand from China and favorable market conditions,” said Bravo.