Two major nickel miners in the Philippines saw a decline in nickel ore sales in the first nine months of this year, but their profits were optimistic.

MANILa, Nov. 13 (Reuters)-Nickel ore sales by the Philippines' two largest producers fell more than 1% in the first nine months of the year. The country's exports to China reached 4.39 million tons in September, the highest level in 13 months.

However, Nickel Asia Corp and Global Ferronickel Holdings were upbeat about last quarter's earnings as prices have surged this year and Indonesia will ban ore exports. Nickel ore from the Philippines destined for China is of lower grade.

Global Ferronickel said the volume of nickel ore sold to Chinese customers in the January-September period fell 1.5 percent to, wet metric tons 为464.2, from 4.711 million wet metric tons in the same period last year. "This is due to management's decision to take advantage of rising prices to ship more high-grade nickel ore,"

the company said in its quarterly financial statement on Wednesday.