Alcoa Analysis With Klaus Kleinfeld

Klaus Kleinfeld, President & CEO of Alcoa joined Maria Bartiromo after the close today, with an exclusive look at its thrid quarter report which hit the wires at 4:05pm ET. Alcoa, which officially kicks off the third quarter earnings season for blue chip companies did not disappoint.

Alcoa reported its first profit in a year, with earnings of 4¢ per share, that compares to estimates for a loss of 9¢ share. Revenues were in line, coming in at $4.62B. On the 9% quarter-on-quarter increase in revenue, Kleinfeld said that this was pretty much "across the board in all the industries, other than aerospace and gas turbine." He also told us that Alcoa "strengthened our cost structure, strengthened the balance sheet and refocused the portfolio."

Perhaps the biggest positive from the report is that the company is sitting on $1.1B in cash.

Kleinfeld did not want to speculate on where he might be putting that cash to work but he said it "is probably the biggest compliment" for the company. He also added that while it gives Alcoa a lot of opportunities, given the unprecedented crisis the company and industry has seen.

Overall, Kleinfeld was optimistic on the outlook, expecting a "stabilization in the U.S." and expects an increase in aluminum demand. He's predicting an 11% growth in the aluminum market in the second half of the year versus the first half. In terms of where demand is coming from, Kleinfeld said that "China clearly is back and back very strong and pulling some off the Asian markets with them."

But there are some clouds on the horizon. Kleinfeld pinpoints energy and the weakening dollar as factors that he's watching closely, especially against the Brazilian Real and Australian Dollar. He says this is important to Alcoa, because "we actually need all the cash performance at this point in time."

Liza Tan contributed to this story

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