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Chalco posts 11-fold jump in interim profit as Beijing gets tough to rid overcapacity

The company has posted its best first-half numbers in nine years

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Beijing issued an edict in April this year, ordering the closure of smelting plants that flouted industry and environment regulations, sending aluminium prices higher on expectation of tighter supply. Photo: Reuters
Eric Ng
Aluminium Corporation of China (Chalco), the nation’s second largest producer of the lightweight industrial metal, posted an 11-fold jump in interim profit, thanks to surging product prices on the back of Beijing’s tough measures to rid excess capacity.

The Beijing-based company, which mines bauxite, refines it into alumina which is then smelted into aluminium, recorded a net profit of 751.3 million yuan for the year’s first six months, up from 67.9 million yuan in the same period last year and 1.54 million yuan in the year preceding that.

It is the best interim results achieved by the state-backed company in nine years, which had three consecutive interim losses between 2012 and 2014 when the entire industry suffered from major overcapacity despite strong demand growth.

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“In the year’s second half ... China’s clean up of production lines that have flouted regulations will have an important impact on the market,” the company said in a filing on Thursday to Shanghai’s bourse where it is listed besides Hong Kong.

“China’s aluminium demand will continue to grow steadily, helped by new consumption segments.”

In the year’s second half ... China’s clean up of production lines that have flouted regulations will have an important impact on the market
Chalco

The interim profit amounted to 30.3 per cent of the 2.48 billion yuan average full-year estimate of 11 analysts polled by Bloomberg, suggesting that analysts expect it to reap even more benefits from the metal’s price rally.

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