Norilsk Nickel boosted profits
Despite the financial crisis, mining and metallurgy giant Norilsk Nickel in 2009 more than quadrupled its year-on-year net profits.
Norilsk Nickel, which has several of its core assets in the Kola Peninsula, in 2009 boosted net profits to 2.7 billion USD, up from 555 million USD in 2008. The company also managed to down-pay a significant part of its debts. The debts, much of it linked with the buying out of shareholder Mikhail Prokhorov, were in 2009 cut to 5.3 billion USD, newspaper Vedomosti reports.
The good results came as the financial crisis raged in the world economy and raw material demand and prices plummeted. Prices on nickel in the period dropped 30, 97 percent, while cupper prices fell 25,4 percent and palladium and platinum by 25 percent. The company’s turnover in 2009 subsequently dropped by 27 percent to 10,2 billion USD.
The good results were also achieved thanks to an initiated cost reduction programme. According to the company, commercial and administrative spending was in 2009 cut with 49 percent, a press release reads.
