Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. (ACH), or Chalco, said Wednesday it swung to a first-quarter net loss due to low metal prices.

The country's biggest alumina producer by output reported a net loss of CNY1.89 billion ($277 million) for the three months ended March 31, compared with a net profit of CNY1.25 billion a year earlier, the company said.

However, the loss was slightly better than the CNY2.57 billion net loss in the fourth quarter last year, due to a recovery of alumina price in recent months.

Chalco said in late March that the international financial crisis, raw material price hikes and sharply decreasing commodity prices pose unprecedented difficulties and challenges to the group's production and operations. The company has suspended part of its production due to losses. Revenue for the first quarter fell 24% to CNY13.94 billion from CNY18.44 billion, Chalco said.

Earlier this year, Chalco's parent, state-run Aluminum Corp. of China, signed a landmark $19.5 billion deal for part of Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto Ltd. (RTP)

-By Yvonne Lee and Juan Chen, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; yvonne.lee@dowjones.com