The world’s premier nickel producer, Inco Ltd. (TSE), says its expects its average realized price for nickel will exceed $5(US) per lb for the second quarter of 1988.
The company, which doesn’t normally make such information public, released the price figure in response to a question regarding the operation of the nickel-price bonus provisions in the recently negotiated collective bargaining with its hourly- paid workers at Sudbury and Port Colborne.
During the highly profitable first quarter of the year, Inco’s average realized price for the metal was $3.47.
Inco is able to project a second- quarter sales price because the bulk of its nickel production is sold through to the end of June. Second- quarter results are not expected to be released until late July.
Surging nickel prices since the beginning of the year — the price reached a high of $10.84 in London and averaged about $5.70 to the end of May — helped the company record its largest quarterly profit ever.
Its earnings of $125.9 million during the first quarter were slightly more than the company’s earnings for all of 1987.
The nickel market remains tight, despite the signing of a new labor contract at Inco and resolution of the dispute over an export tax in the Dominican Republic involving Falconbridge Ltd. (TSE). The London spot price for nickel at presstime was $7.58.
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