The listed unit of state-owned Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco, 中國鋁業), China’s largest alumina producer, swung to a loss in the first half but is looking for overseas investments after a failed Rio Tinto bid, it said yesterday.
Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed Chinalco posted a net loss for the first six months of the year of 3.5 billion yuan (US$515 million) due to weak demand and falling prices, it said in a statement. That compared with a net profit of 2.39 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue fell 29 percent year-on-year in the first half to 28.0 billion yuan, the company said.
Chinalco said it was facing “unprecedented difficulties” this year with metals prices slumping as the global economic crisis hit the property and automobile sectors.
It said it expects to return to profit in the second half as production and prices rise.
Chinalco said it was committed to becoming a global metals company despite a failed deal earlier this year with Australian mining giant Rio Tinto.
“In the second half, we will actively participate in overseas development projects and selectively participate in overseas exploration projects,” Chinalco president Luo Jianchuan (羅建川) told reporters.
In June, Chinalco saw the collapse of its US$19.5 billion bid to increase its stake in Rio Tinto to about 18 percent — in what at the time would have been China’s largest-ever foreign investment.
Chinalco’s president, Xiong Weiping (熊維平), said that the firm was open to foreign partners, including Rio Tinto, but shrugged off reports it was in talks with the Australian firm to jointly produce alumina and bauxite.
“We’re willing to keep in touch with global peers including Rio Tinto and to discuss strategic cooperation, but we are really unaware of the talks reported by Australian media over the past few days,” Xiong said.
Chinalco has distanced itself from the arrest of four Shanghai-based Rio Tinto employees accused of stealing commercial secrets, saying their detention had no connection to the failed deal.
Xiong said Chinalco is studying a partnership with the Saudi Binladin Group and Malaysia’s MMC Corporation to develop a 1.05 million tonne-capacity aluminum smelter in Saudi Arabia.
“We would not rule out cooperation with global mining giants as long as it is mutually beneficial and win-win. We are getting more mature after the Rio Tinto matter,” he said.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
CHANGING JAPAN: Nvidia-powered AI services over cellular networks ‘will result in an artificial intelligence grid that runs across Japan,’ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said Softbank Group Corp would be the first to build a supercomputer with chips using Nvidia Corp’s new Blackwell design, a demonstration of the Japanese company’s ambitions to catch up on artificial intelligence (AI). The group’s telecom unit, Softbank Corp, plans to build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer to support local services, it said. That computer would be based on Nvidia’s DGX B200 product, which combines computer processors with so-called AI accelerator chips. A follow-up effort will feature Grace Blackwell, a more advanced version, the company said. The announcement indicates that Softbank Group, which until early 2019 owned 4.9 percent of Nvidia, has secured a
RSS