Struggling US aluminum giant Alcoa last night trimmed its first-quarter loss to less than half that of a year ago, as it booked restructuring charges.
Alcoa reported a loss of $201m in the three months from January to March, compared with a loss of $497m the same time last year.
The metals giant unofficially kicks off the quarterly earnings season because it is the first of the Dow Jones' blue-chip stocks to announce results.
The first-quarter loss per share was 20 cents, the company said in a statement after the stock market closed in New York last night.
The company said it took special and restructuring charges of $295m, or 29 cents per share. Excluding these exceptional charges, Alcoa would have had earnings per share of nine cents, just below the 10 cents expected by most Wall Street analysts.
Revenues for the first quarter fell 10% from a year ago to $4.9 billion.
'Our performance continued to improve in the first quarter thanks to higher realised prices and strong operational results,' Klaus Kleinfeld, Alcoa's president and chief executive said.
'Our markets are gradually improving and both policy trends and consumer sentiment bode well for aluminum demand,' he said.
Kleinfeld noted the US recently finalised new rules that require increased fuel efficiency and for the first time set greenhouse-gas emissions standards for cars and light trucks. A growing number of customers are requesting sustainable products, he said.
'Factors like these play to aluminum's superior advantages as a light, strong, versatile and infinitely recyclable material,' he added.
