Aluminum Corp of China Ltd posted a 25-percent fall in second-half profit after prices declined and electricity costs increased.

Net income dropped to 3.8 billion yuan (US$536.2 million) in the six months to December 31, from a revised 5.1 billion yuan a year earlier for the Beijing-based company, known as Chalco. That is lower than the 4.5-billion-yuan median forecast of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Aluminum prices in China dropped 7.7 percent in the second half, after producers boosted supplies too quickly. Disruptions at smelters in China and South Africa this year will erode inventories, Rio Tinto Group said last Thursday.

"Coal, fuel and electricity prices will continue to rise this year and next year, negative to Chalco profit," said Feng Zhang, a Hong Kong-based analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. "China will turn into a net importer of aluminum in 2008, supporting higher aluminum prices."

(Shanghai Daily March 18, 2008)