Alcoa Corporation (NYSE: AA) is scheduled to report its earnings results for the second quarter of 2019 on Wednesday after the market closes. The leading producer of Aluminum and bauxite could be hurt by tough macro trends, trade uncertainties and lower demand for alumina.
The company continues to project an aluminum deficit for the year despite lowering its estimates for global aluminum demand growth in 2019. Alcoa remained benefited by the rally in alumina prices due to outages at two Chinese refineries in June but the alumina oversupply in the Atlantic Basin remained a medium-term concern.
In the bauxite market, the company expects the continued surplus this year and the market will be oversupplied in 2019 with additional suppliers from Australia, Guinea and Southeast Asia. In the alumima, Alcoa continues to expect a long Chinese market and a short market outside of China this year.
In aluminum, the company lowered its projected global aluminum demand growth for 2019 due to lower demand growth in China especially in the transportation and electrical sectors. In China, Alcoa sees the market imbalance as downward revisions demand growth estimates are mostly offset by higher levels of smelting curtailment.
Analysts expect the company to report a loss of $0.06 per share on revenue of $2.75 billion for the second quarter. In comparison, during the previous year quarter, Alcoa posted a profit of $1.52 per share on revenue of $3.58 billion. The company has surprised investors by beating analysts’ expectations thrice in the past four quarters.
For the first quarter, Alcoa reported a wider loss due to the impact for special items arising from a collective dismissal process at two smelters in Spain. Total revenues fell by 10% year-over-year hurt by lower alumina and aluminum prices. The company experienced falling industrial metals and rising input costs that has given a very hard time.
Shares of Alcoa opened higher on Monday and is trading in the green territory on the NYSE. The stock has fallen over 51% in the past year and over 18% in the past three months.
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