The Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA) is looking forward to a significant increase in nickel ore output for 2020, projecting almost 40-M wet metric tons (WMT) of deposit.
According to a Manila Times report, this boost can be attributed not only to the Indonesian nickel ore export ban but also to the anticipated better prices for the commodity by next year.
“You know when the price is a bit high, if you can make money you can go further, further distances to mine and that could increase the volume basically. It is more than 40 million tons, I think. Whether it will exceed 50 million tons, I doubt,” PNIA President Dante Bravo was quoted as saying in the report.
Citing the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), Bravo expressed that the country’s nickel production for 2018 would reach approximately 26-M dry metric tons (DMT) as compared to last year’s production.
Moreover, Bravo also expressed that Indonesia’s planned export ban will likely increase the demand for Philippine nickel ore, given the government’s approval for suspended mines to resume operations.
“In Zambales, we hope that, because some of the mines have to resume operations, I think by next year, [we] have four mines [and] they might start [their operations] [and] that would add up. In Mindanao, we hope that some of the mines in Dinagat Islands will be able to operate, so that’s going to add up also,” he stated.
PNIA Chairman Emeritus Clarence Pimentel Jr., on the other hand, projected a balance between market forces of prices and requirements — an optimistic and strong projection of the nickel industry in 2020.
In related news, PNIA was considering the US-China trade war to be one of the major challenges for the Philippine nickel industry.
“That remains basically to be the main challenge, in terms of foreign exchange, economic growth, and going direct investments,” Bravo expressed.
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