Norilsk Nickel to invest USD 12 billion production over next five years

FT com reported that Russia’s metals and mining major Norilsk Nickel plans to invest more than USD 2 billion in production development over the next five years in order to boost production volumes. Company’s chief executive officer Vladimir Potanin said that thus signalled a change of strategy from flat output to growth amid stronger global demand for its products. He said that “We are implementing a rather unprecedented investment program: we are investing more than USD 12 billion in production development in the next five years.” He said that the new investment program will allow a transition from the strategy of maintaining flat production volumes, which the company had maintained for many years, to one of growth. He added that “In 2023-2024 w’e will complete this program, and we count on a 20-25 per cent growth in commercial metals, and for that, the volume of ore produced will have to grow-1.5 times. Our w-hole investment program is now‘ aimed at that.” Mr Potanin expects near-record output of palladium and platinum on rising demand due to stricter ecological requirements. He said that “More and more car producers require palladium and platinum to make catalysts for air purification. We look very positively at this process.” While the company’s 2017 sales across all key products dropped on the year, the trend has reversed in the first nine months of this year, based on the company’s operational data.