Nornickel sees 2026 nickel output broadly in line with previous year

Russia’s Nornickel, the world’s largest palladium producer and a major producer of refined nickel, said on Wednesday it expects its nickel output to reach 193,000–203,000 metric tons in 2026, broadly in line with 2025.

Its palladium output this year is expected to fall to between 2.415 million and 2.465 million ounces, the company added, after it produced 2.725 million ounces of palladium in 2025, down 1% year-on-year but in line with its forecasts.

The company said it produced 198,521 tons of nickel in 2025, a 3% drop from the previous year, a result that also came within the company’s projected range of 196,000 to 204,000 tons.

Nornickel has linked a decline in production in recent years to the depletion of ore reserves and a forced switch to alternative mining equipment due to Western sanctions, and expects recovery in 2028.

While the company is not subject to direct sanctions, the measures have restricted access to Western equipment, complicated payments and logistics, and prompted some foreign clients to avoid buying Russian metal, leading it to redirect sales to Asia.

“The company slightly decreased the output of all key metals, except for platinum, as a result of a temporary increase in the share of disseminated ores, with low-grade ores sparse,” chief operating officer Evgeniy Fedorov said in a statement.

Nornickel has continued upgrading its mining equipment fleet with new suppliers after losing access to Western equipment, he added.

The company has launched construction of a deeper level at its Skalisty mine to bring rich ores from the Oktyabrskoye deposit into production, it said.

“It is this project that will allow us to restore the share of rich ore in total output by 2028,” Fedorov said.

As a result, output could increase by around 20% in nickel equivalent by 2030, the company’s CEO Vladimir Potanin said earlier, calling the current decline in production a “temporary phenomenon”.

The company sees steady demand for its products and does not plan to artificially cut output, Fedorov added.

(By Anastasia Lyrchikova; Editing by Louise Heavens and Jan Harvey)