ALUMINUM Corp. of China Ltd., known as Chalco, yesterday reported its biggest half-year profit since 2007 on rising aluminum prices and higher output of the metal. The Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed aluminum producer said in a filing that its net income for the January-June period was 3.075 billion yuan (US$475 million), up 8,511 percent from a meager profit in a coronavirus-hit first half of 2020. Its latest earnings mark the biggest half-year profit the company has recorded since the second half of 2007, Refinitiv Eikon data show. It also implies a second-quarter net profit of 2.11 billion yuan, Chalco’s best quarterly result since the fourth quarter of 2013. The company attributed the year-on-year jump predominantly to higher prices for its main products. First-half revenue was up 43.6 percent at 120.74 billion yuan as Shanghai aluminum prices averaged 24.8 percent higher year on year. Domestic alumina prices were 2.9 percent higher. Its primary aluminum production climbed 5.5 percent year on year to 1.96 million tons in the January-June period, beating Russian rival Rusal’s 1.868 million tons. Chalco, the world’s biggest producer of aluminum raw material alumina, also lifted output of that material by 14.3 percent year on year to 8.25 million tons. The higher production came despite restrictions on aluminum producers’ power use in Inner Mongolia, home to Chalco smelting subsidiary Baotou Aluminum and one of a number of Chinese regions trying to lower energy consumption. (SD-Agencies) | 