Ukraine's only producer of ferronickel, Pobuzhskiy Ferronickel Plant (PFP), increased output to about 8,800 mt of nickel in ferronickel in the first half of 2016, up 0.3% year on year, the company said Wednesday.
The company processed 704,230 mt of nickel ore in January through June, down 0.3% year on year, while production of ferronickel from nickel ore fell 19.8% to 39,710 mt.
During the period, PFP completed a Hryvnia 46.2 million ($1.86 million) overhaul of some of its equipment, including tubular rotary furnaces No. 2 and No. 3 and ore-smelting furnace No. 1, the company said.
PFP is the only company in the former Soviet Union that produces ferronickel from poor oxidized nickel ore. PFP is capable of processing about 1.6 million mt of wet ore to produce up to 22,000 mt/year of nickel in FeNi. The company exports most of the output.
The company plans to increase processing of nickel ore in 2016 by 7.6% year on year to 1.56 million mt and to increase output of nickel by 7.5% to about 19,300 mt, the company said.
"I want to highlight that the company has steadily worked in the first half of the year, fulfilling all commitments to the partners and shareholders," Oleh Bespalov, PFP director general, said in a statement.
"However, forecasts for the expected results in the second half of the year can only be confirmed with stable production, which is possible only with steady supplies of power, coal, other raw materials and most importantly, maintaining the level of prices and tariffs for all these resources."
PFP produced about 18,000 mt of nickel in FeNi in 2015. The company processed 1.45 million mt of nickel ore, up 1.5% year on year, while production of ferronickel from nickel ore fell by 8.8% to about 92,000 mt.
Ukraine exported 97,040 mt of ferronickel in 2015, down 6.2% from 2014, according to the state statistics service.
