Indonesias Inco 9-month nickel output dips 9.45 pct
The Indonesian unit of Canada’s Inco Ltd. said on Monday its nickel in matte output fell 9.45 percent in the first nine months of the year, mainly due to a fire at one of its furnaces.
PT International Nickel Indonesia Tbk said in a statement it produced 111.1 million pounds, or 50,400 tonnes, of nickel in matte in the January-September of 2006, compared with 122.7 million pounds a year ago.
Nickel matte is an intermediary product from a smelter that must be further refined to make pure metal.
Arif Siregar, Inco Indonesia’s president director, said the furnace fire in late May was likely to cut this year’s production to around 158-159 million pounds from a record-high output in 2005 of 168 million.
The company had initially targeted 2006 output of 167 million pounds.
Inco Indonesia said sales of the anti-corrosive metal used in stainless steel in the first nine months of the year fell to 106.4 million pounds, or 48,300 tonnes, from 117.4 million pounds last year. The nickel produced is sold mainly to Japan.
The average price of nickel received by the company in the first nine months of 2006 was $15,259 a tonne, up 26.08 percent from a year ago.
The company’s nickel in matte inventories by Sept. 30 were 6.4 million pounds, or 2,886 tonnes, little changed from the same point last year.
