Bad weather may affect Philippine nickel production this year

According to foreign news on October 21, the head of an industry group said on Thursday that Philippine nickel production may decline this year due to adverse weather. The Philippines is the largest consumer of metals and the largest supplier of nickel ore to China.

"production is likely to decline because we have experienced a lot of rain this year compared with previous years," said Dante Bravo, president of the Philippine Nickel Industry Association and Global Ferronickel Holdings lnc, the country's second-largest ore producer.

Mining operations and ore transportation at the nickel center in the Karaga region of the southern Philippines are usually stopped in the third or fourth quarter of each year due to the rainy season, but Bravo said this year's torrential rains were particularly destructive.

However, he said he could not make any estimate of the scale of the possible decline in output.

According to the Philippine Mines and Geology Bureau, the country's nickel production in the first half of the year rose 39 per cent from the same period in 2020 to 151646 tons.

Shipments of nickel ore from the Philippines were also affected by a shortage of ships, Bravo said.