French mining group Eramet on Thursday lowered its capital spending target for this year and said it would announce in December more measures to counter declining results and rising debt at the nickel and manganese producer.
The company, which has faced weakness in metal prices and production setbacks at some of its mines, has revised down its 2025 capital spending forecast to between 400 million and 425 million euros ($466 million-$496 million) from 400 million-450 million euros, it said in a third-quarter sales statement.
Optimizing capital spending was among steps taken already under a performance review launched in June by new CEO Paulo Castellari. Eramet will give more details in early December and said it was considering further measures to maintain adequate liquidity and improve its balance sheet.
To counter the risk of not complying with its gearing covenant as of December 31, 2025, the group has requested a waiver from its lenders, it added.
Eramet reported a 10% year-on-year fall in third-quarter sales to 720 million euros, pressured by lower prices and logistics problems at its manganese operations in Gabon.
Rail capacity constraints in Gabon led Eramet to reduce its 2025 target for transported manganese ore volumes to between 6.1 million and 6.3 million metric tons from 6.5 million to 7.0 million tons previously, marking the second cut to the objective.
The company kept the 2025 production outlook for its Weda Bay nickel joint venture in Indonesia at between 36 and 39 million wet metric tons, and for its new lithium mine in Argentina, where it expects 4,000–7,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent this year. Eramet cut both targets in July.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(By Gus Trompiz; Editing by Mark Potter)
