Manila, Philippines/November 12, 2021. Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc. (FNI), the country’s second-largest nickel ore producer, recorded Q3 net income of P1.22B in 2021 against the P1.36B it posted during the same period last year. This brought total earnings for the first three quarters of the year to P1.86 billion, up 19.4% from the P1.56 billion it posted during the same period last year. Revenues for the first nine months of the year are up 15.3% to P6.41 billion compared to the P5.55 billion during the same
period in 2020 buoyed by the higher prices of nickel ore.
The sale of nickel ore for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 was 4.228 million WMT, lower by 0.151 million WMT or 3.4%, compared to 4.379 million WMT of nickel ore in the nine months ended September 30, 2020. This is mainly due to bad weather conditions, which allowed the Group to only ship 78 vessels of nickel ore against the 80 vessels during the same period last year. The resulting sales mix was 81% low-grade ore and 19% medium-grade ore in 2021 versus the previous period’s mix of 59% low-grade ore and 41% medium-grade ore. These were exported 100% to China and consisted of 3.424 million WMT low-grade nickel ore and 0.804 million WMT medium-grade nickel ore compared to 2.588 million WMT low-grade nickel ore and 1.791 WMT medium-grade nickel ore for the same period in 2020.
“We are happy with the results. Despite the heavy rains hampering operations and more expensive fuel prices, the continued rise of nickel ore prices driven by the strong demand from China will augur well for the industry,” said FNI President Dante R. Bravo.
The overall average realized nickel ore price for the period ended 30 September 2021 was US$30.78/WMT compared to US$25.56/WMT for the period ended 30 September 2020, higher by US$5.22/WMT or 20.4%. The price of low-grade ore went up by 35.4% to US$29.79/WMT in 2021 against the 2020 price of US$22.01/ WMT. Medium-grade ore, on the other hand, was US$34.99/WMT or 14.0% higher than the 2020 price of US$30.69/WMT.