Inco Indonesia's Fourth-Quarter Profit Quadruples

PT International Nickel Indonesia Tbk, the country's largest producer of the commodity, said unaudited profit in the fourth quarter of last year more than quadrupled as high nickel prices offset lower production.
Net income in the three months ended Dec. 31 jumped to $265.4 million, or 27 cents a share, from a restated $56.7 million, or 6 cents a share, in the same period a year ago, Inco
Indonesia, as the company is known, said on its Web site.
Sales more than doubled to $589.6 million, it said. The price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange has surged amid growing demand, especially from China, and dwindling supplies. The high price offset a 6.1 percent decline in Inco Indonesia's nickel production to 71,700 tons last year after one of the company's furnaces was destroyed by a fire in May.
Inco Indonesia had record production in the fourth quarter of last year of 21,237 tons compared with 20,743 tons in the same period in 2005, after the furnace resumed operation in August. Prices in the period more than doubled to $24,275 a ton, the company said.

Full-year net income climbed to $513.4 million compared with $267.8 million in 2005, the company said. Sales last year rose to $1.33 billion from $885 million the previous year.