TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – American aluminium and lightweight metals producer Alcoa has reported higher profit for the three months ended June 30, as many of the vertically integrated manufacturer’s business segments put in strong performances.

The New York-headquartered company reported net income for the period of $140-million, or $0.10 a share. Excluding special items, net income rose 16% year-over-year to $250-million, or $0.19 a share.

This was well below Wall Street analyst estimates of adjusted earnings of $0.23 a share.

Revenue was flat at $5.9-billion, driven by strong organic growth in the aerospace, automotive and alumina businesses.

Alcoa had been transforming its business focus in recent years, increasingly depending on the higher-margin downstream market.

The engineered products and solutions division noted record after-tax operating income of $210-million, up 4%, while aerospace revenue was up 29% over last year.

Alcoa’s global rolled products after-tax operating income of $76-million was up 9%, while the adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation a metric tonne rose 18% and automotive sheet revenue jumped about 180% year-over-year.

Further, following months of business restructuring, Alcoa’s primary alumina segment reported after-tax operating income of $215-million, the best first half profitability since 2007.

However, the primary metals division’s after-tax operating income of $67-million was impacted by the Midwest region’s transaction price decline of 22% to $527/t year-to-date through June 30.

Alcoa reported $324-million in productivity gains across all segments year-over-year.

Cash from operations was $472-million and free cash flow for the period $205-million, after a $300-million natural gas supply prepayment for Australian refineries.

Alcoa had $1.3-billion cash on hand at the end of the quarter.

The company's NYSE-listed stock had lost 30% since the start of the year and on Wednesday lost more than $0.50 to close down 5% at $10.50 apiece.