China Aluminum Q1 net profit increased by 50% to 58% year-on-year, marking the best performance for the same period in history | Financial Report Insights

On April 8, Aluminum Corporation of China disclosed its 2026 Q1 performance pre-increase announcement, with net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies expected to be RMB 5.3B to RMB 5.59B, up 50% to 58% year over year, with an incremental gain of RMB 1.77B to RMB 2.05B. This performance is notably above market expectations for the aluminum industry’s traditional off-season. The company characterizes it as “the best level in the same period in history.”

Earnings quality is also resilient. After excluding non-recurring gains and losses, net profit is expected to be RMB 5.14B to RMB 5.42B, up 49% to 58% year over year. It is basically synchronized with the growth rate of attributable net profit, showing that performance growth is mainly driven by core business operations, rather than reliance on one-off gains. Basic earnings per share are correspondingly expected to rise to RMB 0.310 to RMB 0.326, up more than 50% from RMB 0.206 in the same period last year.

In comparison, the restated attributable net profit in the same period last year (Q1 2025) was RMB 3.54B. The midpoint for this period is about RMB 5.44B—an expansion of nearly RMB 1.9 billion in profit volume over one year. In the aluminum industry, a capital-intensive sector with a strongly cyclical nature, such a year-on-year jump is driven not only by the external environment of a higher aluminum price benchmark, but also reflects the company’s internal contribution in cost control and capacity ramp-up.

Full production, stable production, and quality production: Capacity utilization improves significantly and trims marginal costs

The announcement clearly points out that “full capacity operation with stable and optimized production” is one of the core supports for the sharp improvement in performance in this period. For a vertically integrated company like Aluminum Corporation of China, with electrolytic aluminum and alumina as its core assets, a one-percentage-point improvement in capacity utilization leads to a significant marginal cost dilution effect.

Against the backdrop of aluminum prices running relatively high, full production means maximizing the profit window per ton and converting it into actual profits. The company emphasizes that “all production and operating indicators continue to be optimized,” indicating that performance growth relies not only on volume expansion, but also benefits from the simultaneous improvement of quality management and production efficiency, thereby further amplifying the synergy effect of “both volume and price rising.”

Increasing self-mining ratio strengthens pricing power for raw materials

The announcement specifically mentions that the proportion of resources sourced through self-mining has further increased. For aluminum smelting enterprises, bauxite is the core raw material at the very top of the supply chain. Buying ore from outside not only costs more, but also brings supply-chain volatility risks. A higher self-mining ratio means the company’s bargaining power for raw materials strengthens and procurement costs decline, while also compressing the profit space of third-party suppliers.

This logic is especially critical in the current environment where global competition over mineral resources is intensifying. By extending the industrial chain upstream, Aluminum Corporation of China can capture a larger share of value across the entire process from bauxite → alumina → electrolytic aluminum, rather than relying solely on the price spreads in the downstream smelting stage.

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