China stainless steel mogul fights to avoid a second collapse
A debt crisis is threatening the future of one of the world’s top stainless steel producers, Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry.
BEIJING, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Aluminum Corp of China Ltd ,, known as Chalco, said on Thursday that net profit rose by 6.8 percent year-on-year in the third quarter despite lower revenues after it reduced operating costs.
The listed arm of Chinalco, China’s biggest state-run aluminium producer, posted net income of 640.9 million yuan ($92.31 million) for July-September, versus 600.3 million yuan in the third quarter of 2017, according to a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
It is Chalco’s best quarterly profit since the fourth quarter of 2015, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
Third-quarter revenues came in at 43.3 billion yuan, Chalco said, down 11.1 percent year-on-year. Shanghai aluminium prices edged down 0.2 percent in the third quarter, denting smelters’ margins as the cost of key raw material alumina rose amid global market tightness.
Even so, Chalco, which did not provide production data in the statement, said its total operating costs were cut by 10.7 percent to 42.1 billion yuan.
Chalco, which also produces alumina and is one of several Chinese firms to have made lucrative exports of the substance this year, said in August that alumina sales accounted for 19 percent of its revenues in the first half of 2018. ($1 = 6.9431 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Adrian Croft)
