Yunnan Copper Industry Co, China's fourth-largest producer of the metal, turned to a profit in 2009 as prices of the metal surged.

Net income rose to 373 million yuan ($54.7 million) in the year ended on Dec 31, from a loss of 2.8 billion yuan a year earlier, the Kunming, Yunnan province-based company said today. Sales fell 37 percent to 16 billion yuan as production of refined copper decreased 24 percent to 286,700 metric tons, it said in a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Copper prices more than doubled in 2009 as governments around the world ramped up stimulus spending to lift their economies out of recession. Imports of the metal by China, the world's largest consumer, jumped to a record last year on a $586 billion government stimulus program and state stockpiling.

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Yunnan Copper "benefited from higher metal prices," Fan Haibo, an analyst at Cinda Securities Co, said from Shanghai. Still, its performance "wasn't satisfactory" because of ongoing restructuring, he said.

Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco) plans to raise its stake in Yunnan Copper's parent from the current 49 percent, the China Securities Journal reported in January, citing Chinalco's vice president Lu Youqing.

The company plans to raise refined copper output to 320,000 tons this year as China's demand for metals "will remain good for a pretty long time, especially for copper," it said in today's filing.

Yunnan Copper cut production last year, becoming China's fourth-largest producer, from third-largest previously, according to researcher Beijing Antaike Information Development Co.