Singapore 13/07/2016 - Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group, China's leading refined copper producer, has warned of a 77-92 percent year-on-year drop to its net profit for the first half of this year owing to the sharp decline in product prices and increase in finance expenses.
Tongling Nonferrous estimates its net profit will fall to 20-60 million yuan ($3-9 million) in January-June, it said in a filing to Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
The company had produced 1.31 million tonnes of copper last year, up 6.5 percent from 2014.
It plans to produce 1.26 million tonnes of copper this year, down 3.8 percent from 2015, as part of its pact with other nine Chinese copper smelters to reduce their total production by 350,000 tonnes this year.
With 1.4 million tonnes per year of copper cathode production capacity, Tongling Nonferrous is China's largest and the world's second-biggest producer of refined copper, according to the company.