Nickel Asia's earnings drop 50% in H1 2013

Listed miner Nickel Asia Corporation (NAC) saw its net income fall by 49.6 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year.

In a regulatory filing, NAC said that it posted a net income of P645 million as of June 30, down from P1.28 billion in the same period last year.

The company attributed the drop in earnings to the decline in world nickel prices, which was not able to be offset by the 10-percent increase in the company's shipment volume to 5.54 million wet metric tons (WMT) from 5.02 million WMT in the same period last year.

Nickel Asia added that the realized nickel price applicable to 1.97 million WMT of ore it shipped in the first half of the year averaged $7.54 per pound of payable nickel, compared to $8.60 per pound in the same period in 2012.

Despite the increase in volume shipped, operating costs fell 10 percent to P2.65 billion from P2.96 billion in H1 2012. Production cost also fell, to $11.39 per WMT from $13.66.

The period's balance of the shipments was based on a negotiated price per WMT of ore averaging $20.14 per WMT from $26.41 per WMT.

The company also said that its subsidiary, Cordillera Exploration Co., Inc., has terminated its drilling program in its Manmanok property in Apayao province "with generally unsatisfactory results." — BM, GMA News