Alcoa, the world's largest aluminium producer, has said it is to cut 8,000 jobs and sell some of its non-core businesses as it suffers from weak demand.

The cost of some of the restructuring measures meant the company recorded a bigger-than-expected loss for the October to December quarter.

Alcoa posted a net loss of $223m (�139m), or 27 cents a share, for the three month period, which included restructuring charges of $95m.

In the same period a year ago, it made a net loss of $142m, or 17 cents a share.

The news from Alcoa cast a cloud over trading on Wall Street, and Alcoa's shares eventually closed down by more than 10% at $21.85.

Weak demand

Excluding the restructuring charges and other one-off costs, Alcoa would have earned $133m, or 16 cents per share, for the quarter.

But analysts were predicting a profit of about 25 cents a share.

Sales for the quarter came in at $5.06bn, down from $5.1bn the previous year.

"Global manufacturing weakness has persisted longer than we anticipated," said chairman and chief executive Alain Belda.

"In particular, aerospace, industrial gas turbine and telecommunications markets remain soft, reinforcing the need to increase the scope of our cost savings and restructuring initiatives."

Alcoa said the job cuts would affect approximately 8,000 employees at more than 70 locations.

In addition, about 2,000 workers were employed at the businesses which Alcoa intends to sell.

These include non-core businesses such as speciality chemicals and speciality packaging equipment.

Alcoa shed 10,000 jobs last year. It currently employs about 127,000 people in 38 countries.