WARSAW, March 14 (Reuters) - Poland's KGHM KGH.WA , one of the world's biggest copper producers, reported a fourth-quarter consolidated net loss of 87 million zlotys ($25.6 million) on Wednesday compared to an almost 5 billion zlotys impairment-driven loss a year ago.
The loss came despite a rise in copper prices and contrasted with an average net profit of 522 million zlotys expected by analysts in a Reuters poll, many of whom did not include in their forecasts an impairment charge announced by KGHM in February. a stand-alone level, on which KGHM's dividends are based and which mostly reflect the company's Polish operations, the miner booked a net loss of 527 million zlotys in the quarter compared with a loss of 5.37 billion zlotys a year earlier.
The results were also hit by a fall in KGHM's copper production due to an accident at the group's smelter. 2017 KGHM's output of electrolytic copper from own concentrates fell by 4.5 percent to 359,000 tonnes, which compares to 401,000 tonnes the company had initially expected for the whole year. In the fourth quarter alone production amounted to 86,000 tonnes.
State-run KGHM also said the group's revenues fell by 2.4 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter to 5.87 billion zlotys compared to 5.18 billion zlotys expected by analysts.
KGHM said that in 2017 the copper price rose by 27 percent to an average of $6,165 per tonne.
The miner also said that its investment totalled 2.5 billion zlotys in 2017. ($1 = 3.3938 zlotys)