Alcoa Inc. reports job cut of 8,000 as part of restructuring plan

<br>PITTSBURGH (AP) _ Alcoa Inc. announced a fourth-quarter loss worse than analysts predicted Wednesday and said it will cut 8,000 jobs. <br><br>The world's largest aluminum producer said the job

Wednesday, January 8th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

PITTSBURGH (AP) _ Alcoa Inc. announced a fourth-quarter loss worse than analysts predicted Wednesday and said it will cut 8,000 jobs.

The world's largest aluminum producer said the job cuts would be mostly in Europe and South America. Alcoa ended the year with 127,000 employees.

The company had expected market losses in aerospace and other industries to flatten out, yet sales continued to slide.

``Global manufacturing weakness has persisted longer than we anticipated,'' said Alain Belda, Alcoa chairman and chief executive officer. ``In particular, aerospace, industrial gas turbine and telecommunication markets remained soft, reinforcing the need to increase the scope of our cost savings.''

For the quarter that ended Dec. 31, the company lost $223 million, or 27 cents per share, as revenue slipped to $5.06 billion from $5.10 billion a year earlier. The loss was worse than the 25 cents per share predicted by analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call, and far wider than the year-ago loss of $142 million, or 17 cents per share.

Shares of Alcoa fell $1.81, or 7.4 percent, to $22.57 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Alcoa said it had reviewed all its businesses and will spin off those that do not deliver ``superior returns.''

Among the operations that will be sold off are specialty chemicals and packaging equipment in North America and automotive fasteners businesses and some fabricated operations in South America.

Those businesses generated about $1.3 billion in sales in 2002, the company said. Proceeds from the spin-offs will be used to reduce debt, company officials said.

The company reported a net income of $420 million in 2002, or 49 cents per share, compared with net income in 2001 of $908 million, or $1.05 per share.