Reply #4: Alcoa's 2Q net income drops 4 percent [View All]

[ozymandius]

PITTSBURGH - Alcoa Inc. started the second-quarter earnings season by reporting a 4 percent drop in net income, as outages at two of the aluminum maker's U.S. plants eroded profits despite overall second-quarter sales growth.

Alcoa, the first Dow Jones component to report earnings, said Monday that net income for the three months ended June 30 was $715 million, or 81 cents per share, from $744 million, or 85 cents per share, a year ago.

The company recorded charges of $36 million, or 4 cents per share, for outages at its facilities in Alcoa, Tenn., and Rockdale, Texas. In Tennessee, one of the company's production lines — shut down by a lighting strike in April — was restarted last month, while the Rockdale smelter's output was slowed to allow for refurbishment due to be finished between October and December.

-cut-

Alcoa's earnings matched the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Financial, who had forecast profit of 81 cents per share on slightly higher sales of $8.3 billion. Alcoa said its revenue figure excluded the soft-alloy joint venture and otherwise would have met analyst projections.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070710/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_alcoa