Alcoa (NYSE:AA) announced that it swung to a loss of $143 million during the third quarter, compared to income of $172 million in the same period last year. Adjusted EPS was 3 cents, topping analysts, who had forecast the company to break even, Reuters noted.

For the quarter, the aluminum producer recorded revenue of $5.8 billion, down 9% from 2011. The decline was attributed to a 17% fall in aluminum prices since last year.

Investors were not pleased. Alcoa shares slid about 3% in early Wednesday trading.

Yesterday, Alcoa announced that it had agreed to pay Aluminum Bahrain $85 million to settle a lawsuit in which it was accused of bribing Bahrain officials. The company also indicated that it could face an addition $25 million to $30 million charge depending on the findings of U.S. regulators who are also looking into the incident.

Company officials said that they detected signs of slowing aluminum demand in China and cut their projection for aluminum consumption this year to a 6% rise over last year. They had earlier predicted a 7% increase this year.

Demand from the worldwide aerospace business was expected to remain strong and aluminum demand for automobiles was anticipated to expand between 11% and 15% annually in the U.S. and Canada as manufacturers increasingly turn to aluminum to reduce vehicle weights.

Still, aluminum prices have fallen sharply over the past year, down from $2,112 per metric tonne at this time last year, to just $2,055 per tonne this week.