Alcoa reported net income attributable to the company of 483 million dollars, or 1.81 dollars a share, for the third quarter of 2026, up from 407 million dollars in the second quarter, with adjusted earnings of 1.82 dollars a share and adjusted EBITDA of 789 million dollars on revenue of 3.7 billion dollars. Free cash flow was 472 million dollars, and the company ended the quarter with 4.4 billion dollars of cash, including 2.6 billion dollars of financing raised for the AliGroup acquisition.
Operations drove the print. Alumina production rose 11 percent from the prior quarter to 2.5 million tonnes on improved stability at the Pinjarra refinery in Australia, and aluminium production rose 2 percent to 649,000 tonnes, the sixth consecutive quarterly increase, as the restart of the Alumar smelter in Brazil was completed. Five smelters and one refinery set year to date production records.
The strategic item is AliGroup, the purchase of South32’s interests in its bauxite, alumina and aluminium assets. South32 shareholders approved the sale on October 15, and Alcoa expects to close in the first half of 2027, after which management says rapid deleveraging becomes the capital allocation priority. The company also agreed to sell portions of its Massena East site in New York, with potential proceeds of up to 315 million dollars.
Management guided to higher fourth quarter production and shipments in both alumina and aluminium. The quarter matters beyond one company: Alcoa is the listed bellwether for Western primary aluminium, a market tightened by Chinese output caps and tariff protection, and its rising output is the supply response those prices are supposed to produce.