Nickel Asia first half 2026 profit surges 93% to P4B

Insider Spotlight

• Higher nickel prices, stronger ore shipments and a weaker peso lifted Nickel Asia’s first-half profit 93 percent, underscoring the earnings leverage of a stronger commodity cycle.
• The company is using stronger cash flows to expand beyond nickel, advancing its renewable energy business while making its first overseas investment through a planned stake in a Kazakhstan copper mine.
• The company believes nickel prices will remain supported by slowing supply growth and steady demand.

Nickel Asia Corp. nearly doubled first-half profit as stronger nickel prices and higher ore shipments boosted cash generation, giving the country’s largest nickel producer more firepower to expand into renewable energy and overseas copper.

The Zamora family-backed miner posted attributable net income of P4.06 billion, up 93 percent from a year earlier. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization climbed 67 percent to P8.68 billion. 

Ore sales rose 45 percent as shipments increased 10 percent and average realized prices climbed 23 percent.

“The nickel supply chain has held up well despite the lingering Middle East conflict, and that resilience helped us grow even against higher oil and input costs,” Nickel Asia president and CEO Martin Antonio Zamora said in a stock exchange filing on Thursday. 

Zamora said he remains bullish on nickel prices, arguing that supply of high-purity Class 1 nickel is tightening as production costs rise while demand for lower-grade Class 2 nickel continues to grow under Indonesia’s tightly regulated quota system.

Martin Antonio Zamora

Nickel Asia president, CEO 

Mining strength

Nickel Asia sold 8.65 million wet metric tons of ore during the first half, supported by stronger export prices and improved pricing for deliveries to its affiliated high-pressure acid leach plants.

The company said a weaker peso also lifted earnings, with its average realized exchange rate rising to P60.85 per US dollar from P56.47 a year earlier.

Beyond nickel

The company is accelerating investments outside its core mining business, with its renewable energy arm increasing electricity generation 68 percent after bringing the first phase of its Leyte solar project online.

Nickel Asia is also expanding overseas after completing due diligence on its planned US$30 million acquisition of a 20 percent stake in Kazakhstan’s Karchiga copper mine, marking its first international critical minerals investment through its Singapore subsidiary.

“NAC Energy is central to that story — it’s helping lower electricity costs for Filipinos, and we’re on pace to reach almost 600 MW of gross operating capacity by the end of 2027. At the same time, NAC Global, our offshore vehicle in Singapore, continues to open doors for us in critical minerals abroad,” Zamora said.

—Edited by Miguel R. Camus