French nickel and manganese miner, Eramet expects to meet its nickel ore guidance in 2020 on continued demand for stainless-steel.
The company confirmed the 2020 nickel ore export guidance from its New Caledonia mine at 2.5mn wmt and ferronickel production from the Doniambo plant at 50,000mt. The firm also increased its guidance for nickel ore production at Indonesia’s Weda Bay mine to more than 2.5mn wmt and low-grade ferronickel alloy production to 20,000mt.
Eramet’s New Caledonia project, SLN, exported 1.7mn wmt of nickel ore in the first nine months of the year, up by 61pc from the same period last year, while its mining production grew by 15pc to 3.8mn wmt during the same period. Ferronickel production increased by 5pc to 37,000mt in the nine months ended September 30, 2020, compared with the same prior-year timeframe, and sales rose by 9pc to 39,000mt in the same period.
In Q3 2020, New Caledonia’s nickel ore production rose by 20pc to 1.6mn wmt compared with the same quarter last year, while low-grade nickel exports rose 6pc to 600,000wmt. During the quarter, ferronickel output climbed by 15pc to 13,000mt from Q3 2019, while ferronickel sales grew 10pc to 13,000mt during the same quarters under comparison.
The company’s Sandouville plant in Normandy experienced a decline in sales and production last quarter due to a technical issue at the plant, causing a brief operational halt in July.
Eramet’s high-performance alloys division also continued to decline during the quarter with the business segment’s sales falling by 20pc to €154mn ($179mn) compared with Q3 2019.
As a result, the company’s consolidated sales fell 6pc to €2.53bn in January-September 2020 from €2.70bn in the prior-year period and were down by 5pc to €850mn in Q3 2020 from €895mn in Q3 2019.
(€1 = $1.16)