Jiangxi Copper, the mainland's largest copper smelter, said third-quarter net profit fell 16.1 per cent despite sharply higher turnover, as higher material costs ate into profitability.
Net profit fell to 1.25 billion yuan from 1.5 billion yuan a year earlier, as turnover jumped 52.2 per cent to 11.26 billion yuan, based on mainland accounting standards.
Operating profit margin tumbled to 13.4 per cent from 24.7 per cent.
The higher turnover was due to higher sales volume and prices, while costs grew because of higher volume and unit costs of materials, the company said in a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange.
Nine-month net profit tumbled 8.7 per cent year on year to 3.25 billion yuan, as turnover climbed 59.3 per cent to 28.56 billion yuan.
Analysts warned of a further squeeze on profit margin due to tight global supply of the raw material copper concentrate, which Jiangxi Copper increasingly imports and processes into refined copper used in the mainland's fast-growing power and construction sectors.
'Despite Jiangxi Copper's ambition to purchase copper mines, a tight global copper concentrate market and limited copper resources in Jiangxi province may make it difficult for it to make large-scale copper mine acquisitions at reasonable prices,' Lehman Brothers analyst Oliver Du wrote in a research report.