Surging aluminium prices drive China Hongqiao to record high profit

China Hongqiao

20/08/2021 14:29

* H1 net profit up 187.5% y/y at record 8.14 billion yuan
    * Aluminium production at 2.80 mln T vs 2.74 mln T in H1
2020
    * Shanghai aluminium prices hit 13-year high this week

    By Tom Daly
    Aug 20 (Reuters) - China Hongqiao Group  1378.HK , the
world's biggest non-state owned aluminium producer, reported
record half-year earnings on Friday as surging prices of the
metal saw profit almost triple.
    Hongqiao said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange
its net income for January-June was 8.14 billion yuan ($1.25
billion), up 187.5% from a year earlier and the biggest
half-yearly profit for the company since it listed in 2011,
Refinitiv Eikon data show.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2FM2R6
    Revenues were up 31.4% to 52.48 billion yuan as Hongqiao
noted Shanghai aluminium prices  SAFc3  were around one third
higher than in the same period of 2020. 
    Prices rebounded strongly from the coronavirus outbreak on
recovering demand in China last year. This week, they hit a
13-year high of 20,575 yuan a tonne as several Chinese regions
impose power consumption restrictions on smelters to reduce
carbon emissions, tightening aluminium supply.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2PO07G
    Hongqiao, which only reports earnings on a half-yearly
basis, said it produced 2.801 million tonnes of aluminium alloy
products in the first six months of this year, up from 2.741
million tonnes a year earlier.    
    Its sales of aluminium raw material alumina were up 23.9%
year-on-year in financial terms.
    Sustained economic growth in China, the world's top
aluminium market, in the second half of 2021 should see
aluminium consumption continue to rise in the real estate,
automotive and infrastructure sectors, driving prices for the
metal higher, Hongqiao said. 
    In a separate filing, Hongqiao said it had appointed
Christine Wong, who has been head of the company's investor
relations department for 10 years, as an executive director.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2PR04D
    Wong is also Hongqiao's head of corporate finance.

 ($1 = 6.4992 Chinese yuan renminbi)

 (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Susan Fenton)
 ((tom.daly@thomsonreuters.com; +86 10 5669 2119;))