MOSCOW, April 22 (Reuters) - Russian metals giant Nornickel, the world's largest palladium producer and a major producer of high-grade nickel, cut nickel production by 10% year on year in the first quarter to 42,000 metric tons, the company said on Monday.
CEO Vladimir Potanin said last year that sanctions have constrained Nornickel's development, though Western governments have refrained from targeting Nornickel directly in response to the conflict in Ukraine.
This month, Washington and London prohibited metal-trading exchanges from accepting new aluminium, copper and nickel produced by Russia and barred the import of the metals into the United States and Britain to try to disrupt Russian export revenue.
"The temporary decrease in nickel production was attributed to accumulation of work-in-progress inventory, which will be processed in the second quarter," Nornickel said in a statement.
The company confirmed its 2024 production forecast, expecting nickel production to fall to 184,00-194,000 tons.
Palladium output increased by 3% in Q1 to 745 koz, Nornickel said. In 2024, palladium output is seen at 2,296-2,451 koz.
Consolidated copper output rose by 1% to 110,000 tons.
Struggling to import equipment to sanctions-hit Russia, Nornickel will close its Arctic copper plant and build one in China with an unnamed partner to gain direct access to the world's biggest metals market, Potanin told Interfax in an interview published on Monday. (Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova and Alexander Marrow; editing by David Evans)
