Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd, the country's largest producer of primary aluminum, posted a 65.56-percent drop in its first-half net profit, which stood at 2.4 billion yuan ($350.4 million), the company reported late on Friday.

Half-year revenue totaled 3.5 billion yuan, down 64.08 percent year on year. The earnings per share were 0.18 yuan, down 68.33 percent from a year earlier, according to its interim report.

The soaring price of imported materials, freight and energy pushed up costs, and declining sales crippled overall profits. In addition, the severe winter weather at the beginning of the year hurt the company's production and sales, said Liu Shuwei, director of Chinese enterprise research center at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

In the first half, the company's alumina sector experienced a drop in sales and sales prices due to increased use for itself and weakening trade. Revenue of the sector was 16.4 billion yuan, down 9.66 percent from the same period last year. Sales were 2.54 million tonnes, 460,000 tonnes down from the first half of last year.

The weakening performance also applied to the electrolytic aluminium sector, which saw revenue fall by 2.07 billion yuan to 29.5 billion yuan. Sales in the first six months stood at 1.35 million tonnes, 58,300 tonnes less than the first half of last year.

(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2008)