FNI income jumps to P1.3B in 2019

LISTED Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. (FNI) booked a net income of P1.303 billion in 2019, more than doubling its P509-million profit the year before. the to In P6.655 nickel a increased disclosure company billion by on last 21.3 said Wednesday, year percent its from revenues

P5.487 billion in 2018, driven by higher nickel ore prices and ore volume shipped.

This growth, however, was offset by an unfavorable exchange rate, which was lower by an average of 2.9 exchange percent. rate This of P51.65 resulted for in FNI’s an export revenues, compared with P53.18 in 2018. Shipments of nickel ore rose to 108 vessels last year from 103 a year earlier because of favorable weather and increased operational efficiency. For 2019, the product mix was 45- percent low- grade ore and 55- percent medium- grade ore, compared with the year-earlier’s mix of 47-percent low-grade and 53-percent medium-grade ore.

These shipments, sold only to China, consisted of 2.660 million wet metric tons (WMT) of low-grade nickel ore and 3.230 million WMT of medium-grade nickel ore last year. These are higher than the 2.658 million WMT low-grade nickel ore and 3.051 million WMT medium-grade nickel ore shipped in 2018.

Year-on-year, the overall average realized nickel ore prices jumped by 21 percent to $21.87/WMT from $18.07/WMT.

“Our robust performance in 2019 reflects our management system and the key competencies of our workforce that we envisioned from the get-go,” FNI President Dante Bravo said in the disclosure.

For the first three months of 2020, FNI saw its net loss widen to P158 million from P136 million year-on-year.

“Despite the challenges brought about by the [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic, we continue to build on the success of last year and remain optimistic that we can meet our adjusted shipment target of 5 million WMT for 2020,” Bravo said.

FNI shares added 3 centavos or 3.49 percent to close at 89 centavos each on Wednesday.