Nornickel boosts palladium, platinum production 6% in Q1, confirms forecast
MOSCOW. April 26 (Interfax) - Nornickel produced 583,000 ounces of palladium in Q1 2018, a 6% increase on the same period last year, the company said on Thursday.
Platinum output was also up 6% to 138,000 ounces.
Nornickel confirmed its 2018 production forecast from Russian feedstock at 2.63-2.725 million ounces of palladium and 600,000-650,000 ounces of platinum.
The increase of PGM output was mostly due to the lower base effect of Q1 20177, when PGM work-in-progress inventory was building up, Nornickel said. At the same time, in the reported quarter, the output of palladium and platinum from the company's own Russian feed increased 12% and 17% y-o-y, respectively. In Q1 2018, production of PGMs from third party feed was stopped due to the practical suspension of third party feed processing at Norilsk Nickel Harjavalta.
Nornickel consolidated PGM production in Q1 2018:
| Q1 2018 | Q1 2017 | Change | |
| Palladium, Koz | 583 | 549 | 6% |
| Of which from Russian feed | 583 | 521 | 12% |
| Platinum, Koz | 138 | 130 | 6% |
| Of which from Russian feed | 138 | 118 | 17% |