Aluminum giant Alcoa reported a quarterly loss on Monday steeper than expected in the face of “historic decline” in prices and big restructuring charges, in a bleak opening for the US earnings season.
Alcoa, which last week announced massive job cuts and other cost-cutting moves, said its net loss for the past quarter was US$1.19 billion including hefty reorganization charges.
That amounted to a loss of US$1.49 per share, or US$0.28 per share excluding one-time items, worse than the average Wall Street estimate of a loss of US$0.10 per share on that basis.
REVENUE
Alcoa, which is traditionally the first of the blue-chip companies to report quarterly results, said that revenues fell 18 percent in the quarter to US$5.7 billion.
For all of last year, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, company swung to a loss of US$74 million from a 2007 profit of US$2.56 billion, as revenues fell 8.1 percent to US$26.9 billion.
Alcoa said results “were driven by a 35 percent decline in aluminum prices in the quarter,” including a 56 percent decline from July and a sharp drop in demand from the automotive, commercial transportation, building and construction sectors.
“We are taking wide-ranging measures to address the economic downturn,” said Klaus Kleinfeld, president and chief executive of Alcoa.
“We have streamlined our portfolio to focus on businesses where Alcoa is the recognized leader, curtailed production to adjust to weakened demand, reduced global headcount, and achieved significant savings in key raw materials,” Kleinfeld said.
“By moving quickly to address the market decline, we are using Alcoa’s strategic flexibility and solid liquidity to address the continuing economic uncertainty and emerge even stronger when the economy recovers,” he said.
LAYOFFS
Alcoa said last week it would slash some 13,500 jobs, or 13 percent, of its global workforce and reduce output to cope with the global economic downturn. Alcoa also said it was implementing a freeze on hiring and salaries.
Some analysts have said financial markets are not prepared for the sharp falloff in corporate results stemming from the global economic crisis.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary