Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC) reported an 80 percent surge in unaudited attributable net income to P1.05 billion in the first quarter of 2022 from the P584 million earned in the same period last year.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to P2.20 billion, a 30 percent increase compared to P1.69 billion in the prior year.

“The global nickel industry continues to labor under a record deficit – with an even larger projected deficit this year as compared to the previous year,” said NAC President and CEO Martin Antonio G. Zamora.

He added that, “Coupled with continued strong demand for stainless steel and the accelerating trend in demand in the electric vehicle market, these factors have been beneficial to our metals and mining business.” Nickel ore sales volume decreased by 10 percent, from 2.65 million wet metric tons (WMT) in the first quarter last year to 2.39 million WMT in the same period this year.

However, revenue from the sale of nickel ore increased 17 percent year-on-year, from P2.85 billion in 2021 to P3.32 billion in 2022, as the weighted average realized price of ore sold increased 22 percent from $22.21 per WMT last year to $27.03 per WMT this year.

Breaking down the ore sales, NAC exported 651 thousand WMT of saprolite and limonite ore to Japanese and Chinese customers at the weighted average price of $46.90 per WMT in the first three months of the year, compared to 845 thousand WMT at $45.60 per WMT in the same period last year.

It also delivered 1.74 million WMT of limonite ore to the Coral Bay and Taganito HPAL plants, the prices of which are linked to the LME, and realized an average price of $11.80 per pound of payable nickel. This compares to 1.81 million WMT at $7.96 per pound of payable nickel in 2021.

Expressed in US Dollar per WMT, deliveries to the two HPAL plants generated $19.58 and $11.29 in the first quarter of 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Furthermore, as a result of higher LME prices, NAC recognized gain from its equity share in its investments in the two HPAL plants in the amount of P305 million in the first quarter of 2022, a 166 percent increase compared to P115 million gain in the same period last year.

The realized Peso to U.S. Dollar exchange rate for ore sales was P51.51 compared to P48.38 in the prior year.

Total operating cash costs increased by 8 percent year-on-year to P1.67 billion from P1.55 billion in 2021. On a per WMT of ore sold basis, total operating cash costs increased to P701 per WMT compared to P583 per WMT last year.

On NAC’s foray into the renewable energy business through Emerging Power, Inc., Zamora said “We remain on track to complete Phase 3B of the Subic Solar Project, which would bring its total capacity to 100MW by May of this year, and expect to begin work on Phase 4 towards the latter part of the year, leading to a total capacity of 200MW by 2024. Further, we have made significant headway with respect to our 1,000MW renewable energy pipeline.”

“We continue to monitor extraneous factors such as the lockdowns in China that may affect the global supply chain and impact our businesses as well,” he noted.