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ower commodity selling price has affected the financial performance of two publicly-listed nickel producers in the first nine months of the year, a trend that will likely continue as price rebound will be too late to offset the loss.

PT Vale Indonesia, which is 58.73 percent owned by Vale Canada Limited, reported US$28.9 million in net profits in the first nine months of the year, a massive 90 percent drop compared to $319.9 million in the same period last year.

State-owned PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) booked Rp 627.78 billion ($65 million) in net profits up to the third quarter of the year, falling 59 percent compared to Rp 1.56 trillion in the same period last year.

Both suffered from lower revenue due to weakening nickel selling price.

Vale and Antam’s revenue stood at $693.68 million and Rp 7.13 trillion, respectively, from January to September, which were a 31 percent and 8.7 percent drop compared to the same period last year.

Vale actually reported better performance in the third quarter compared to the second quarter of the year, thanks to increasing production volume supported by the start of operations of its upgraded furnace. Only in the third quarter, Vale reaped $268.3 million in revenue, which was a 17 percent increase compared to revenue in the second quarter.

Vale produced 49,411 metric tons and delivered 50,611 metric tons of nickel in matte from January to September, declining by 7 percent and 1 percent respectively compared to the same period last year. Only in the third quarter, the company produced 23 percent and 29 percent more nickel matte than in the second quarter.

“This important achievement is the result of a successful ramp up of the upgraded Electrical Furnace 2 operation combined with an excellent operational performance,” Vale director and chief financial officer Fabio Bechara said in a written statement.

Despite an increase in shipment, Vale’s average selling price stood at $13,706 per metric tons during the first nine months of the year, declining by 29 percent from $19,323 per metric ton in the same period last year.

Compared to Vale, Aneka Tambang relatively performed better as it depends not only on nickel sales but also on other commodities, including gold, silver, coal and bauxite.

Antam produced 13,287 nickel tons (TNi) of ferronickel from January to September this year, declining by 11 percent compared to 14,990 TNi of ferronickel in the same period last year.

Antam’s ferronickel sales volume reached 13,133 Tni, priced at an average of $7.67 per pound during the first nine months of the year, falling 28 percent from $10.8 in the same period last year. Ferronickel sales contributed about 30 percent to total revenue.

Antam benefited from the increase in gold selling price that reached $1,649 per troy ounce. The company enjoyed Rp 2.5 trillion from gold sales, which accounted for 35 percent of total revenue.

“Gold sales helped Aneka Tambang balance the weakening nickel price. However, the problem with gold sales is that although the price increases, gold production cannot be easily increased like other commodities,” David Nathanael Sutyanto, an analyst of First Asia Capital, said.

David said that nickel price would likely rebound in the fourth quarter of the year in line with other commodities’ price increase on the back of increasing demand ahead of the winter season.

“However, current nickel price is already too low. The rebound will only be slight and cannot change the condition too much,” David said.