MOSCOW – The world's top nickel and palladium producer, Russia's Norilsk Nickel said on Thursday its output of nickel fell by 7% to 69 357 tons in the first quarter of 2009 from a year-ago level.

The fall resulted from the placement of Norilsk's Australian assets on care and maintenance, a decline in output at the Harjavalta refinery in Finland, and in refineries in Russia, the company said in a statement.

Output of palladium in the first quarter of this year declined by 1,2% to 590 000 ounces, while production of sister metal platinum rose by 2,2% to 141 000 ounces. The statement gave no explanation for the change.

Copper output fell by 8% to 95 714 tons in the first quarter.

The company's Russian units, produced 90 800 tons of copper, 2 000 tons less than it planned due to lower volumes of processing raw materials with low metals content, the statement said.

Production figures do not include output by US unit Stillwater Mining Co, it said.