Nickel Asia Corporation reported a 35 percent drop in attributable net income to P1.12 billion in the first half of 2024 from the P1.75 billion earned during the same period last year due to lower nickel prices.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the firm said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) fell to P2.96 billion from P4.79 billion in the prior year.

Revenues from ore sales declined by 16 percent year-on-year to P7.79 billion from P9.29 billion due to lower ore prices resulting from the nickel oversupply.

Meanwhile, the company’s operating mines sold a combined 8.16 million wet metric tons (WMT) of nickel ore during the period, higher by 8.5 percent than last year’s 7.52 million WMT.

The weighted average nickel ore sales price during the period decreased by 26 percent to $16.60 per WMT against $22.32 per WMT in the same period last year.

The company realized P57.50 per US dollar from these nickel ore sales, a four-percent increase from P55.33 last year.

Breaking down the ore sales, the Company exported 4.23 million WMT of saprolite and limonite ore at an average price of $21.95 per WMT during the period from 3.66 million WMT at $28.22 per WMT in the same period last year.

Likewise, NAC delivered 3.93 million WMT of limonite ore to the Coral Bay and Taganito high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) plants, the prices of which are linked to the London Metal Exchange (LME) and realized an average price of $7.94 per pound of payable nickel, equivalent to $10.84 per WMT. 

This compares to 3.86 million WMT at $11.03 per pound equivalent to $16.72 per WMT last year.

NAC also recognized losses from its combined equity share in investments in the two HPAL plants in the amount of P388.20 million against P77.07 million losses in the prior year.

For the first half of 2024, Emerging Power, Inc.’s (EPI) subsidiary Jobin SQM, Inc. (JSI) increased generation by 54 percent to 117,935 megawatt hours due to a significant increase in overall capacity. 

Last Feb. 28, 2024, JSI successfully opened an additional 72-MWp in Sta. Rita, Subic, expanding capacity to 172-MWp.

Higher revenues and effective cost management kept the EBITDA margin at 85 percent and resulted in a 58-percent increase in EBITDA to P524.3 million.

“Our three new nickel projects, namely Dinapigue, Bulanjao, and Manicani will supplement our annual nickel ore production volumes to help supply the ever-growing demand for nickel ore driven by both the stainless-steel and EV markets,” said NAC President and CEO Martin Antonio G. Zamora. 

He added that “furthermore, our diversification into renewable energy continues with three more projects in the immediate pipeline, which brings us closer to our 1-GW goal by 2028.”