Alcoa profit rises; CEO won't speculate on asset sales

(Reuters) - Alcoa Inc , the largest U.S. aluminum producer, reported an increase in quarterly profit on Monday, helped in part by a stronger performance by its alumina and primary metals segments despite a tough market.

But in an interview with CNBC after the results, Chief Executive Klaus Kleinfeld declined to rule out selling Alcoa's raw material assets: "This is not the time to speculate," he said.

Stubbornly low aluminum prices have weighed on the company's business of mining bauxite, refining into alumina, and smelting alumina to produce aluminum.

Recent growth has come thanks to Alcoa's downstream business. Indeed, in the first quarter, earnings also rose in the "engineered products and solutions" segment, which sells cast metal products like aluminum wheels and aircraft parts.

Alcoa, the first of the S&P 500 companies to report quarterly results, maintained its forecast for 7 percent growth in global aluminum demand this year. Even so, its shares slipped 1 percent to $8.30 in trading after the bell.

Alcoa is viewed as a bellwether for the materials sector, and some look to it for hints on the health of the broader economy. A strong earnings season could send U.S. equity markets to new highs, but disappointing results could halt a rally that has already slowed.

The S&P 500 hit an all-time closing high last Tuesday, but still posted its worst week this year, hurt by Friday's worse-than-expected jobs data.

Net income rose to $149 million, or 13 cents a share, from $94 million, or 9 cents, a year earlier. Revenue slipped 3 percent to $5.8 billion.

Excluding restructuring charges and other items, earnings rose to $121 million, or 11 cents a share, from $105 million, or 10 cents.

Analysts, on average, had been expecting 8 cents a share on revenue of $5.88 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Allison Martell; Additional reporting by Josephine Mason and Euan Rocha; Editing by Frank McGurty and Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/alcoa-profit-rises-ceo-wont-speculate-asset-sales-211258021--finance.html

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