Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc. (FNI), the 2nd largest nickel ore exporter in the Philippines, saw its revenue and net income increase in the first 9 months of 2019 buoyed by higher nickel ore prices.

In a statement, FNI said net income jumped by 35 percent to PHP804.95 million in January to September compared to PHP595.43 million in the same period last year.

Its revenues grew by 5.4 percent to PHP4.79 billion from PHP4.54 billion.

The average realized price of nickel ore sold in the first nine months continued to improve at USD19.88 per wet metric tons (WMT), up by 9.3 percent compared to last year.

“We are counting on the price of nickel to continue its upward momentum, especially with the Indonesian government’s recent decision to ban the export of nickel ore from next year,” FNI president, lawyer Dante Bravo, said.

The volume of shipment for the nine months ending September 30 was down to 1.5 percent at 4.642 million WMT as against 4.711 million WMT of nickel ore for the previous period with the same number of 85 vessels.

Bravo attributed this to management’s decision to ship more higher-grade nickel ore to take advantage of better prices.

The resulting product mix was 42 percent low-grade ore and 58 percent medium-grade ore in 2019 versus the previous period’s mix of 43 percent low-grade ore and 57 percent medium-grade ore, he said.

These shipments sold solely to Chinese customers consisted of 1.953 million WMT low-grade nickel ore and 2.689 million WMT medium-grade nickel ore compared to 2.046 million WMT low-grade nickel ore and 2.665 million WMT medium-grade nickel ore of the same period in 2018, he added.

“We are delighted with our output as it marked a strong end to our operations for the year. But we shall continue to find ways to enhance our performance and be well positioned to take advantage of growth opportunities as we look to 2020,” Bravo said. (PNA)