Vale's Q1 net sales drop 39%
Friday, May 4 2012 - 02:51 AM WIB
Jakarta listed PT Vale Indonesia Tbk recently stated a 39 percent drop of net sales throughout the first quarter of this year to US$197 million from US$322.4 million during the same period last year.
"This is due to the lower price of nickel and lesser sales volume this year," said company deputy director Bernardus Irmanto in Jakarta.
Nickel prices were down by 24 percent throughout the quarter to US$15,470 per ton, in which the company managed to sell around 12,514 tons of nickel in ferronickel, or 21 percent less in volume from the same period last year due to 25 percent drop in production to 12,431 tons from 16,501 tons in the same quarter in 2011.
The company stated that the reconstruction of its two power plants since the fourth quarter of last year heavily affected their production volume.
As subsidiary of Canadian based Vale International, the company holds a total of 218,529 hectares of nickel concession areas spread over Luwu Timur regency, Kolaka regency and Bahodopi regency of Sulawesi. The company started its Indonesian operation in 1968.
Editing by Er Audy Zandri