London, 18 November 2010

Aluminium prices will rise over the next decade as a scarcity of high-quality mines and sites for new smelters constricts supply in the face of surging global demand, a top Alcoa official told the Financial Times.

"The demand is going to be there, because the things driving demand are very hard to stop," the paper on Friday quoted Klaus Kleinfeld, chief executive of the world's largest producer of the metal prized for its lightness and recyclability, as saying. "The real question is whether there will be enough projects to meet that demand."

Even with slower demand in China, which makes up roughly 40 percent of world aluminium demand, Alcoa believes global demand can grow 6.5 percent per year over the next decade, doubling total use by 2020.

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