NEW YORK: Alcoa Inc, the world’s largest aluminium producer, has reported a profit dip for the latest quarter but the result still beat Wall Street estimates as the company controlled costs to offset weaker demand in the key aerospace and gas turbine sectors and higher energy costs.
Alcoa, which started a massive restructuring earlier this year in the face of sluggish demand, posted a second-quarter net income of US$216mil, or 26 cents a share, down 7% from the US$232mil, or 27 cents a share, it earned a year ago.
Excluding discontinued operations, the maker of metal used in everything from beverage and food cans to auto parts recorded a profit of 27 cents a share.
“Alcoa made good progress in controlling costs in the quarter and this should help the company to weather soft industrial demand,” said Mark Parr, an analyst at McDonald Investments.
The company's revenues for the quarter to June 30 was better than expected, rising to US$5.46bil from US$5.16bil last year. The improvement was helped by the rising price of alumina, which is up strongly this year. Alumina is the primary ingredient in aluminium.
Alcoa said it had saved US$872mil in costs so far this year and remained on track to meet its goal of US$1bil in cost savings by the end of 2003. – Reuters
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