Nickel Asia Corp. (NAC) reported a 2.18% increase in attributable net income for the first half of 2018 to P1.57 billion, due to rising rising nickel demand to supply the electric vehicle batteries.
In a regulatory filing to the Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Aug. 7, NAC said its two processing plants, Coral Bay Nickel Corp. (CNBC) and Taganito HPAL Nickel Corp. (THPAL), benefited from the increasing LME nickel price brought on the the surge in electric vehicle production.
“Consequently, the Company recognized P526 million of earnings from its 10% share in the two plants during the first six months of the year compared to P55 million reported in 2017,” NAC said.
This, and the weaker peso-to-dollar exchange rate, buoyed the company’s profit despite the drop in revenues.
NAC president Martin Antonion G. Zamora in the statement pointed to a strong competition with Indonesia in ore shipments which led to a drop in export prices as the reason for a 5.70% drop in revenues to P7.38 billion from P7.82 billion a year ago.
Mr. Zamora noted that this has been the company’s “biggest challenge” for this year.
“On the other hand, we expect to continue benefitting from a significant price improvement on ore deliveries to the two processing plants, which are linked to LME prices,” he added. — Anna Gabriela A. Mogato

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