NEW YORK - Aluminum producer Alcoa Tuesday swung to profitability for the third quarter on the strength of lower costs and in spite of declining metals prices.
Alcoa (IW 500/53), a longtime U.S. industrial bellwether dropped last month from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, said profits for the quarter ended Sept. 30 came in at $24 million on revenues of $5.77 billion, up from a loss of $143 million on revenues of $5.83 billion a year ago.
Excluding special items, which included $109 million in restructuring costs, earnings were 11 cents per share, five cents above analyst expectations.
Alcoa said strong performance in its engineered products and global rolled products overcame a 7% decline in year-over-year aluminum prices.
Total costs and expenses for the period declined 5.8% to $5.69 billion.
"Our performance this period shows our repositioning of the company is on the right path," said CEO Klaus Kleinfeld.
"Our commodity business delivered better performance in a tougher market environment, and we continued to reshape the portfolio to lower the cost base."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
