China's aluminium producer Chalco returns to profit in Jan-Sept

<p>China's state-owned Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd (Chalco) swung back to profitability in the first nine months, buoyed by higher metal prices and continued cost-cutting efforts, the company said on Thursday.<br /><br />Chalco posted a net profit of 107.9 million yuan ($16.02 million) in the January-September period, compared with a net loss of 974.6 million yuan a year earlier, it said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The gains came as the company, one of the world's top producers, benefited from the continued rise in aluminium prices . <br /><br />Prices rose 1.5 percent for their third straight quarterly rise, hitting one-year highs of $1,710 a tonne in August, as global capacity cuts helped erode excess output. The improvement was also partly attributable to the recent sale of some assets.<br /><br />{googleAdsense}<br /><br />The second-largest aluminium producer in China, Chalco accounts for just under a quarter of the country's alumina output and over 10 percent of its aluminium output.<br /><br />The global market has been plagued by oversupply for the past five years, depressing prices and hurting producers' profits.<br /><br />Aluminium smelters in China, the world's top producer and consumer of the metal, cut output late last year, reducing supply in the hope of supporting prices.<br /><br /></p>