Rio Tinto cuts aluminium output

LONDON (SHARECAST) - Miner Rio Tinto continued to experience 背ifficult?conditions at its aluminum business during the second quarter, with production there down 5% on the same time last year. Aluminium enjoyed a slight improvement on the first quarter, though, falling to 942,000 tonnes, 1% lower than the first three months. Rio said a 搒teady?performance at the low cost Canadian smelters was hurt by production cutbacks in Canada and Europe and a transformer failure in New Zealand. Elsewhere, production cutbacks in response to the sharp fall in demand had bauxite production down 14% year-on-year and alumina down 6%. Global iron ore output increased though, up 8% on the second quarter of 2008, as production of Pilbara iron ore jumped 11% to 53 million tones as operations ran at full capacity. Mined copper fell 1%, but refined copper jumped 23% thanks to an improved performance and higher concentrate grades at Kennecott Utah Copper and higher cathode production at Escondida. Pre-tax and pre-divestment expenditure on exploration and evaluation dropped to $242m from $401m a year ago in an effort to cut controllable operating costs down by at least $2.5bn a year in 2010. 揗arkets remained tough in the second quarter, as expected, particularly in aluminium,2 said chief executive Tom Albanese. 揟he production curtailments announced in January in this product group have started to take effect and are reflected in this report.? 揥e continue to press ahead with actions to reduce costs across the board, align production with demand, and bring down levels of net debt.? The company has already completed a $15.2bn rights issue this month and agreed to sell assets worth $3.7bn.