The third quarter earnings season got off to a dismal start with Alcoa (NYSE:AA) cuttings its production outlook for China.
The company said economic growth in the People’s Republic is slowing faster than anticipated, which is having an effect on vehicle production and construction.
The aluminum producer now expects 2015 car production growth in China to be between 1% and 2% higher than 2014’s level, compared to a previous expectation of 5%-8 growth.
Commercial building and construction sales are tipped to rise by 4%-6%, which is a downward revision to the previous guidance range of growth of 6%-8%.
The company’s earnings came in below expected, at an underlying seven cents a share on revenue of US$5.57bn; analysts covering the stock had expected earnings per share of 13 cents on revenue of US$5.66bn.
The results were announced after the end of trading on Thursday, but those trading after-hours on screen-based trading platforms drove the shares down by around 4%.
Pre-market trading has seen that decline pared to 1.9% at US$11.01.