Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco), the country's largest producer of the metal, posted a 2.04 billion yuan third-quarter profit on turnover of 17.96 billion yuan in its first quarterly earnings report since listing in Shanghai in April.
For the first nine months, profit totalled 8.44 billion yuan on turnover of 54.57 billion yuan. No comparative figures were available.
Chalco, which is also the world's second-largest alumina producer, said in August its first-half profit fell 5.15 per cent to 6.4 billion yuan, the first decline in five years, after it cut alumina prices as domestic capacity increased.
The international price of alumina, the semi-finished raw material for making aluminium, fell to an average of US$340 a tonne this year, compared with US$450 a tonne last year, mainly because of more supply from new alumina producers in the mainland, analysts said.
Last month, Chalco reduced its alumina spot price 10.26 per cent to 3,500 yuan a tonne to match international levels.
Aluminium had also been under significant price pressure since July, following an increase in stockpiles at the London Metal Exchange to about 950,000 tonnes from 830,000, Jon Bergtheil, a JPMorgan analyst, said in a report. He forecast the aluminium price would this year fall 15 per cent to an average of US$2,256 a tonne and base out at US$2,150 by 2009.
