UPDATE 1-Bad weather could hit 2021 Philippine nickel output – industry head

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MANILA, Oct 21 (Reuters) – Nickel output in the Philippines, the biggest supplier of nickel ore to top metals consumer China, could decline this year due to unfavourable weather, the head of an industry group said on Thursday.

“There is that possibility of decline in output because we experienced a lot of rains this year compared to previous years,” said Dante Bravo, president of the Philippine Nickel Industry Association and the country’s second-largest ore producer Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc FNI.PS.

Mining operations and shipping of ore from the Philippines’ nickel hub of Caraga region in the south are usually halted in the third or fourth quarter of the year due to the rainy season, but Bravo told Reuters the downpour this year is particularly disruptive.

However, he said he could not give any estimates on the scale of possible decline in output.

The country’s nickel output in the first half of the year rose 39% from the same period in 2020 to 151,646 tonnes, data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau showed. nL4N2Q50JH

Bravo said nickel ore shipments from the country have also been hampered by a shortage of vessels.

(Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

((enrico.delacruz@tr.com))