Chinalco posts record loss of $1.3b since listing

Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco), the country's largest aluminum producer, posted a loss of 8.2 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) for the 2012 fiscal year, the largest deficit since it was listed in 2007.

In a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Wednesday, the State-run company attributed the loss to worsening macroeconomic trends, rising costs of raw materials and electricity and slumping prices for its major products.

The deficit is the equivalent of incurring a loss of 22.55 million yuan a day throughout 2012, in stark contrast to a 2.38 billion yuan profit recorded a year ago.

In 2012, Chinalco generated 149.5 billion yuan in revenue, up 2.47 percent year-on-year.

The company's income has fallen since the final quarter of 2011, when it registered a loss of 730 million yuan. This widened to 1.09 billion yuan in the first quarter, 2.16 billion yuan in the second, 1.08 billion yuan in the third before snowballing to 3.9 billion yuan in the final quarter.

The loss has also led to hefty pay cuts for the company's executives, with Xiong Weiping, the chairman, taking a 39.46 percent year-on-year reduction to 577,800 yuan in 2012.