Kaiser Aluminum Loss Narrows in 3rd Quarter

Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical said its sales rose and its loss narrowed in the third quarter, but the Oakland company again appeared to step back from earlier predictions that the company’s operations would be profitable for the year.

Kaiser Aluminum had a net loss of $2.2 million in the third quarter, compared to a net loss of $21.1 million in the same three months last year. The most recent quarter included $2 million in tax credits, compared to $13.3 million in tax credits in the third quarter of 1985. The third quarter last year also included a loss of $3.5 million on the sale of Kaiser Aluminum’s international trading business.

Revenue for the quarter rose to $599.1 million, up nearly 10% from $545 million in the year-ago quarter.

Kaiser Aluminum Chairman Cornell C. Maier attributed the third-quarter improvement to higher aluminum production and shipments and lower costs in the aluminum division.

The company’s aluminum division, excluding oil and gas operations, made an undisclosed “small profit,” Maier said. But because the company expects a decline in aluminum shipments and prices and a “less-favorable product mix” in the fourth quarter, “we have some concern about aluminum division operating results in the fourth quarter,” he said.

When Kaiser Aluminum reported its second-quarter results, Maier said the company’s 1986 profitability, excluding the gain from the proposed $450-million sale of most of Kaiser’s real estate assets, depended in part on increased shipments of aluminum products and price improvements in the second half of the year.

Maier had predicted in April that Kaiser Aluminum this year would record its first annual profit since 1981.

In addition, Maier said he expected the aluminum division to return to profitability for at least part of the year.