Alcoa last night reported fourth-quarter earnings that met Wall Street's expectations, and the company said it expects slightly higher demand for aluminium this year.
The sluggish global economy has weakened prices for aluminium used in everything from airplanes to drink cans.
But Alcoa forecast demand growing 7% in 2013, up from a 6% gain in 2012.
It sees the best prospects in aerospace but slower improvement in demand for cars, packaging, and building and construction materials.
In the fourth quarter, Alcoa's net income was $242 million, or 21 cents per share. That includes one-time gains like income from selling a hydroelectric project on the Tennessee-North Carolina border.
Without those gains, the company would have made 6 cents per share - exactly what analysts expected, according to FactSet - on revenue of $5.90 billion. Sales were higher than the $5.58 billion that analysts predicted.
A year ago, the company posted a fourth-quarter loss of $191m, or 18 cents per share, on revenue of $5.99 billion, and a loss after special items of 3 cents per share.
The company said it hit record profits in its aluminium-rolling and product-making businesses while cutting costs in its mining and refining or "upstream" segment.
Chairman and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld said the company overcame volatile aluminium prices and global economic weakness and was in "strong position to maximise profitable growth" in 2013. He said aerospace sales were helped by aircraft-order backlogs at Airbus and Boeing, plus improved profits at the world's airlines.
The price that Alcoa received for aluminium fell 2% from a year ago but rose nearly 5% from the third quarter. Shipments were flat from a year ago.
The low prices were a factor in the announcement last month by Moody's Investor Service that it could downgrade Alcoa's credit rating to junk status. Alcoa has been trying to reduce debt to keep its investment-grade rating. In the fourth quarter, it cut spending by 12% to $6.23 billion.
Alcoa is the first company in the Dow Jones industrial average to report fourth-quarter earnings. Because it makes aluminium for so many key industries, investors study Alcoa's results for clues about the health and direction of the overall economy.
