The two biggest nickel miners in the Philippines do not expect further major disruptions to their operations this year, after posting lower first-half ore sales due to lockdown measures aimed at containing the coronavirus.
Since neighbouring Indonesia banned nickel ore shipments at the start of the year, the Philippines has become the leading supplier of nickel ore, the raw material for stainless steel, to the world’s biggest metals producer and user China.
Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc, the country’s second-largest ore producer, on Friday kept its 2020 shipment target of 5 million wet metric tonnes. First-half sales fell 30% to 1.26 million wmt, from 1.81 million wmt in the same period last year.