Benguet Corp profit down 19% in Q1

Benguet Corp. posted a 19 percent decline in its net income in the first quarter of the year due to lower nickel sales.

In a financial report to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Benguet said net earnings fell to P420.7 million from P518.6 million in the same period last year.

Consolidated revenues dropped to P1.26 billion from P1.28 billion.

Benguetcorp Resources Management Corp. (BRMC), which handles the company’s nickel operations at the Sta. Cruz nickel project, reported lower revenues of P972.8 million compared to last year’s P1.05 billion.

“The decline in revenues was mainly due to lower sales volume and lower nickel price versus last year,”Benguet said.

During the quarter, BRMC sold a total of eight boatloads totaling 424,015 tons with an average price of $43.75 per ton.

This is lower than the eight boatloads with a total of 435,475 tons sold at an average price of $49.31 per ton in the same period last year.

In contrast, revenues from the Acupan gold project (AGP) increased by 21 percent to P249.6 million.

“The increase is on account of higher sales volume and price of gold during the quarter,”Benguet said.

Gold sales reached 2,606.7 ounces, an increase from the 2,387 ounces the previous year.

Average gold price increased to $1,871.68 per ounce from $1,801.13 per ounce in 2021.

AGP milled 13,184 tons with average mill grade of 6.15 grams of gold per ton compared with 4,603 tons milled with average grade of 5.08 grams of gold per ton last year.

Cost and operating expenses rose by 23 percent to P700.3 million from P571.1 million, largely due to the increase in selling and general expenses brought about by the series of fuel cost increases and its corresponding impact in prices of materials and supplies.

Benguet is mainly involved in the production and marketing of gold, nickel laterite ore and limestone. The company also has a prospective gold project in the province of Zamboanga.