Ahead Of Alcoa's Q1 Results

(RTTNews) - Alcoa Inc. (AA), the largest U.S. aluminum producer, is likely to release its first-quarter numbers after the bell on Monday, April 11. According to data compiled by Thomson Reuters, analysts estimate the company to report earnings of $0.03 per share on revenue of $5.13 billion.

Alcoa, which will be split into two independent publicly-traded companies later this year - a globally competitive Upstream Company and an innovation and technology-driven Value-Add Company, believes that aluminum demand will continue to increase also in 2016 by 6%, and will continue to double from 2010 to 2020.

To strengthen the company, Alcoa announced business improvement programs across its portfolios: the Value-Add and Upstream businesses will deliver $650 million and $600 million, respectively, in productivity and margin improvement in 2016.

In the last quarter, the company incurred a loss of $500 million or $0.39 per share, compared to last year's profit of $159 million or $0.12 per share last year.

The quarter's bottom line were impacted by special charges of $565 million related primarily to closures or curtailments of capacity in the Upstream business and income tax charges.

Excluding one-time items, fourth-quarter profit were $65 million or $0.04 per share, down from $432 million or $0.33 per share a year ago. Analysts expected earnings of $0.02 per share.

Sales for the quarter dropped 18% to $5.25 billion from $6.38 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $5.29 billion for the quarter.

The decline in revenues reflect lower alumina and aluminum prices, the impact of divested, curtailed or closed facilities, and unfavorable currency. In 2015, the Midwest transaction price for primary aluminum fell $657 per metric ton, or 28 percent, and the Alumina Price Index dropped $154 per metric ton, or 43 percent, the company said.