Singapore 03/08/2016 - Ferronickel production at Indonesia's PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) fell 12.1 percent year-on-year to 8,304 tonnes (contained nickel) in the first half of this year, the company said in its quarterly activity report this week.
Output in the second quarter was down 20 percent year-on-year at 3,947 tonnes. Production fell because it halted its FeNi II smelter during the first quarter and switched it on only in May after the completion of repairs.
Antam currently has three electric smelting furnaces - its FeNi I smelter was shut in 2013 due to the construction of FeNi IV, also known as its Pomalaa ferronickel plant expansion project.
It is now in the final stage of the project, which will lift Antam’s ferronickel capacity by 50 percent to 27,000-30,000 tonnes per year of contained nickel (assuming nickel ore feed of 1.9 percent) this year.
Antam's ferronickel sales fell 28.4 percent year-on-year to 8,092 tonnes in January-June due to the rescheduling of ferronickel export shipments to India and South Korea from June to July due to inventory management, Antam said.
Its ferronickel sales slipped 22.6 percent year-on-year to 5,467 tonnes in the second quarter.
Antam is targeting 20,000 tonnes of ferronickel production (nickel contained) this year from its three ferronickel smelters at Pomalaa in southeast Sulawesi. It produced 17,211 tonnes of nickel contained in ferronickel in 2015.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)