Nickel industry’s resilience helps PH economic recovery

The Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA) is optimistic that the nickel sector’s resilient growth amidst the pandemic will continue to contribute greatly to the country’s economic recovery efforts.

In 2020 PNIA members jointly spent over P167 million on their Social Development and Management Programs, P49 million on COVID assistance, and P532 million on their Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programs, through which over 7 million trees have been planted to date.

“PNIA members are equally committed to ensuring sustainability in our communities through  community and environmental preservation efforts. The projects we implement for the community and the environment are as equally important to PNIA members as their operations. These aren’t just projects, this is part of the core of our business goals,” emphasizes PNIA President Atty. Dante R. Bravo.

He also shares that the members of PNIA have already supplied approximately half of the 2020 Philippine nickel production and 31% of total production from January to March for the current year 2021.

Bravo added that the increases were driven by the continuous uptrend in nickel prices and by the robust demand from China’s stainless steel producers.

“Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s nickel industry remained resilient with a reported increase of 4% in production growth and 22% in export value citing a comparison of year-on-year data for 2019 and 2020 as posted in a recent report of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB),” Bravo said.

The MGB report also highlighted that the industry’s total direct shipping ore production was P38.86 billion in 2020, even higher than the P31.79 billion in 2019. The MGB’s recorded data also revealed that between January to December of 2020, the nickel industry produced 27.17 million dry metric tonnes (DMT) of nickel ore which is higher compared to previous year 2019’s total production of 26.21 million DMT.

“We are hopeful to maintain this growth momentum especially after the issuance of EO 130 that lifted the ban on new mineral agreements as it will pave the way for new mining projects and entice more investments in the mining industry,” adds Bravo.

Bravo also strengthened PNIA’s collective commitment to industry sustainability efforts as he announced that PNIA members will soon release their performance report on their alignment with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) before the year ends.