More losses are reported by Alcoa

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The US aluminium-maker Alcoa has reported a third consecutive quarter of losses, although they were not as bad as had been expected.

It made a net loss of $454m (£283m) between April and June.

That followed a net loss of $497m in the previous three months and a net profit of $546m in the second quarter of 2008.

Alcoa was the first of the companies in the Dow Jones industrial average to report second quarter earnings.

The economic downturn has hit Alcoa because with most of its customers come from hard-hit sectors such as car manufacturing, aerospace and construction.

It has responded to falling demand for aluminium by cutting 13,500 jobs, reducing its dividend and raising $1.3bn to help it get through the recession.

It has cut back production by about 20%.

"At first glance it looks constructive," said Brian Hicks at US Global Investors.

"It appears that demand is starting to come out of trough levels and clearly Alcoa will benefit from that as we start to see somewhat of an uptick in demand."