GLOBAL Ferronickel Holdings Inc. (FNI), the country’s second-largest nickel producer, said it eyes to ship 2 million wet metric tons (WMT) of nickel ore to a subsidiary of China’s largest steel manufacturer China Baowu Steel Group this year.
In a disclosure to the local bourse, FNI said its subsidiary Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC) has renewed its supply contract with Hong Kong-based Baosteel Resources International Co., Ltd. (Baosteel Resources). Baosteel Resources specializes on trading of metallurgic raw materials, according to its company web site.
“The purchase agreement covers a full range of products, from low-grade ore with nickel content of 0.90 percent to high-grade ore with nickel content of as high as 1.8 percent,” FNI said on Monday. “The pricing will be based on prevailing market prices for the 2018 mining season.”
PGMC has been supplying Baosteel Resources with low-grade limonite ore to high-grade saprolite since 2014, according to FNI.
PGMC also renewed its supply deal with Guangdong Century Tsingshan Nickel Industry Co. Ltd. last month for the former’s shipment of 1.5 million WMT of nickel ore. The supply contract covered medium-grade nickel with high-grade iron ore, and would be priced as well based on prevailing market prices this year.
In an earlier pronouncement, FNI said that it has set a 6 million WMT target shipment for PGMC this year, but “subject to weather conditions.”
Last year FNI’s nickel output rose to a three-year high of 6.153 million WMT amid higher metal prices and cost-efficient operations. The figure was 34.72-percent higher than the 4.567 million WMT recorded volume in 2016.
However, despite the increase by more than a third in its nickel-ore output, the firm was unable to hit its target 6 million WMT volume of nickel ore shipment last year.
FNI, the largest single lateritic mine exporter in the world, said in 2017 that it exported a total of 5.971 million WMT of nickel ore, or 99.5 percent of its 6 million WMT shipment target volume.
However, the figure was 38.57 percent higher than the 4.309 million WMT volume of nickel ore it exported in 2016.