U.S. aluminium producer Alcoa sees earnings drop 81 per cent

   Weak global demand for aluminium has caused earnings to drop over 80 per cent for Alcoa a large U.S. producer. The drop is over the first half of 2012.
    In spite of the large drop results were still better than many analysts predicted. Profit in the first half of this year were 8 cents a share. Revenues were down 5 per cent compared to the same period in 2011. The second quarter of this year included losses of 2 million due to costs of fixing environment damage, costs of fire damage, and restructuring costs.
   There is growing demand from auto and aerospace industries for aluminium. The CEO Klaus Kleinfeld expects global demand to rise a total of 7 per cent for the year an upgrade from a 3 per cent forecast earlier in the year. Over the past year aluminium prices have dropped 18 per cent. In response major producers have been reducing output. For more see this article.
 

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