Eramet’s Nickel Ore Exports Increased By 8% In The First Half Of 2019.

Recently, Eramet released its second quarter earnings report for 2019. The company believes that despite the high nickel prices, the price environment in the first half of 2019 is still unfavorable, and LME nickel prices fell by an average of 11%.

In the first half of 2019, although it has been mined three times, the nickel mine production of SLN in New Caledonia has reached a record.

The company’s production target for 2019 confirmed that nickel ore exports 1.5 Mt tons. Although the grade of mining from 2019 is lower than in previous years, there are still 720 kilotons of ore concentrate.

Global stainless steel production is stable, at a high level, global stainless steel production increased steadily in the first half of 2019 (+0.2%), driven by China’s growth (+3.3%); global primary nickel demand increased by 2.9%, especially supported by battery development (+ 25%); driven by NPI (+28.6%), global primary nickel production increased (+10.8%), especially in Indonesia (+41.8%).

In the first half of 2019, the company was still negatively affected by the disruption of the mining business in the East Coast Center that affected SLN FeNi production. The new working hour agreement has increased nickel ore production by 1.9Mth (+7%). In the first half of 2019, the export ore volume increased by 8% to 489kth, and in mid-June, it was exported to 650kth.

Due to the interruption of the East Coast Mining Center, the production of ferronickel in the first half of 2019 decreased by 12% and the sales of ferronickel decreased by 13% (24 kt) due to the low grade ore loaded into the furnace.