Antam to sign nickel deal with INCO
Under the proposed agreement, the nickel will be used for the Indonesian miner's third smelter
Posted: Thursday , 25 Mar 2010
SINGAPORE(Reuters) -
mineweb.net
Indonesian mining firm Aneka Tambang (ANTM.JK: Quote) is looking to initially procure one million tonnes of nickel a year from PT International Nickel Indonesia (INCO.JK: Quote) (INCO) under a supply contract.
Under a potential agreement the nickel from INCO, a unit of Brazil's Vale (VALE5.SA: Quote), will be used for Antam's third smelter called FeNi3 in Pomalaa. "We are in discussion, right now we are sorting out the technical and commercial issue. In principle there's no problem with Inco," President Director Alwin Syah Loebis told Reuters.
"We want to increase that, ideally to a level in line with our demand of 1.8-2.0 million tonnes a year," he added.
He also said the company, which has a market capitalisation of $2.2 billion, is expecting better revenue for 2010 due to higher nickel sales and better metal prices, but declined to say how much its revenue would increase.
Loebis said the state-owned firm is expecting a average ferronickel prices of $8 per pound from around $6.6 last year and reiterated the plan to boost its ferronickel output by nearly 50 percent to 19,000 tonnes in 2010.
In 2009 Antam reported a revenue of 8.7 trillion rupiah ($954.4 million) and analysts expect the company to report a revenue figure of 9.6 trillion rupiah in 2010, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimates. ($1=9,115 rupiah) (Reporting by Harry Suhartono, Editing by Saeed Azhar) |
