Alumina Ltd. said Aug. 23 that first-half attributable net profit sank 26% to US$210.9 million, or 7.3 cents per share, which was negatively influenced by lower realized alumina prices related to its Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals, or AWAC, joint venture.
For the half year ended June 30, adjusted net profit fell 28% to US$219.5 million.
The fall in first-half profit led to the Australian aluminum producer declaring a fully franked interim dividend of 4.4 cents per share, a drop from the 8.6-cents-per-share interim dividend distributed in the half-year period in the prior year.
Alumina's 40% share of net profit in the AWAC joint venture declined to US$219.0 million, from US$295.1 million in the comparable year-ago period.
The AWAC joint venture, which is 60%-owned by Alcoa Corp., posted a net profit after tax of US$552.3 million for the half, representing a 25% slide, as revenue shrunk to US$2.81 billion, from US$3.19 billion.
AWAC's third-party bauxite shipments for the half year grew 3.8% to 2.7 million bone-dry tonnes, generating revenue of US$119.6 million. For the full year, third-party shipments is expected to total 6.2 million bone-dry tonnes.
Meanwhile, AWAC's alumina production for the full year is forecast at approximately 12.6 million tonnes, with aluminum production targeted at about 165,000 tonnes.
