MELBOURNE, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Shipments of nickel ore to Australia from New Caledonia in January-September slumped by more than half from a year earlier, as the French Pacific island exported more ore to South Korea, data from the International Nickel Study Group (INSG) released on Tuesday showed.
The drop in exports to Australia comes amid financial difficulties for Queensland Nickel refinery, owned by Australian politician and mining magnate Clive Palmer, and which is the country's biggest buyer of New Caledonian ore.
Palmer told Reuters in August that the company was yet to fill its laterite ore quota from New Caledonian suppliers and was eager to increase volumes.
He also said that Queensland Nickel had confirmed to miner Societe Le Nickel that it was "ready and willing" to extend its contract for five years.
Clive Palmer's spokesman did not return an email requesting comment.
Shipments of ore and concentrate to Australia fell by 55 percent to 8,153 tonnes in January-September from 18,235 tonnes a year earlier, while exports to South Korea jumped by 36 percent to 31,896 tonnes from 23,432 tonnes. Exports to Japan, the only other nation to receive raw ore exports from New Caledonia, held steady at just under 20,000 tonnes.
New Caledonia is one of the world's top suppliers of nickel ore, and leapt into the spotlight last year, after Indonesia, the world's top exporter of raw material used in stainless steel, banned raw materials exports.
Australia, Korea and Japan had all imported more ore last year compared with the previous year, after the ban which led to a scramble for stocks.
But this year, nickel producers have come under pressure as China's slowing growth has cut into demand for stainless steel, sending prices hurtling by more than a third to their lowest in more than a decade in late November near $8,000 a tonne.