The fourth-quarter net loss was $191 million

The fourth-quarter net loss was $191 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with net income of $258 million, or 24 cents, a year earlier cheap burberry outlet 2012, the New York-based company said yesterday in a statement. The loss excluding restructuring costs was 3 cents a share, matching the average projection from 18 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 6 percent to $5.99 billion from $5.65 billion.

The loss is Alcoa’s first on an adjusted basis since the second quarter of 2009, when the company was dealing with a slump in aluminum prices that followed the global financial crisis. Aluminum fell in 2011, with the benchmark three-month price in London averaging 11 percent lower in the fourth quarter than a year earlier, and Alcoa said last week it would close 12 percent of its smelting capacity.

The loss “makes it very much an uphill battle” to meet analysts’ current expectations in 2012, Jorge Beristain, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG who rates the shares “hold,” said by phone yesterday. Alcoa needs earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization “to essentially double in the next quarter and then stay at that level for the next four,” he said.

Alcoa rose 0.7 percent to $9.49 at 7:47 p.m. in New York after the close of regular trading. Alcoa is the first company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to report earnings for the quarter. The stock slumped 44 percent last year, the second- biggest decline on the Dow Jones Industrial Average after Bank of America Corp.’s 58 percent drop.

Output Cuts

The company will cut its global smelting capacity by 531,000 metric tons. U.S. smelters at Alcoa, Tennessee, and Rockdale, Texas, will be affected, it said Jan. 5. Alcoa said yesterday it will curtail production at smelters in Portovesme, Italy, and La Coruna and Aviles in Spain as part of the plan.

Aluminum supply has exceeded demand and inventories have soared, leaving some smelters unprofitable at current metal prices. Global output exceeded demand by 953,516 metric tons in the first three quarters of 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Industries burberry bags.

Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld said yesterday that global aluminum demand will grow 7 percent this year, compared with 11 percent in 2011. That expansion, combined with production cuts, will lead to a market deficit of 600,000 tons in 2012, Alcoa said.

Aerospace Growth

Aerospace sales growth will be 10 percent to 11 percent in 2012, the company said yesterday in an analyst presentation. European auto- and truck-manufacturing output and construction sales will decline year. Beverage-can and packaging sales in Europe will grow by as much as 5 percent in Europe, while that segment will grow as much as 20 percent in China, Alcoa said.

European aluminum demand won’t grow in 2012, compared with expansion of 1 percent last year, it said. Chinese demand will increase 12 percent this year, down from 15 percent.

Alcoa is a fully integrated aluminum producer. It mines bauxite, an ore that contains aluminum, and refines it into alumina, the raw material used by aluminum smelters. As well as selling aluminum to industrial users, Alcoa makes products such as can sheet and components for cars and aircraft.

Alcoa’s aluminum output increased 5.4 percent to 962,000 tons in the quarter. Its alumina production rose 1.4 percent to 4.18 million tons. Burberry men shirts - designer long shirts, cheap short shirts sale.