The net profit of China Minmetals Non-ferrous Co., Ltd (CMN), the country's larggest metals trader, tumbled 94.86 percent in the first half of the year from a year earlier to 87.07 million yuan (12.87 million U.S. dollars), said the company in its half-year report Friday.

The CMN attributed the sharp decline in its first-half profit to a gloomy operating environment during the period with steel and non-ferrous metals prices plunging but bottoming out.

Business revenue in the first six months of the year totaled 30.8 billion yuan, falling 48.75 percent from a year earlier. But the company said month-on-month figures showed total operating performance was trending upward as a result of prompt strategic adjustments.

Earnings per share slumped 95.03 percent year on year to 0.081 yuan.

CMN's share price sank 5.06 percent to close at 18.2 yuan at the Shanghai Stock Exchange Friday.

Founded in 1950, China Minmetals Corp. is a large State-owned group that specializes in producing and trading metals and minerals. Its revenue in 2008 was 27.7 billion U.S. dollars, up 28 percent from 2007.

CMN completed an assets acquisition of the Australian miner OZ Minerals Ltd., the world's second largest producer of zinc, for 1.386 billion U.S. dollars on June 11.

(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2009)