$AA BEATS BIG

Alcoa beats by $0.13, beats on revs; reaffirms FY12 global alumina demand +7% (9.32 -0.28)
Reports Q1 (Mar) adj. earnings of $0.10 per share, $0.13 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of ($0.03); revenues rose 0.8% year/year to $6.01 bln vs the $5.75 bln consensus. The improvement over 4Q11 results was driven by strong productivity improvements across all businesses, higher realized prices for aluminum, and improved volume and mix. These were offset somewhat by a lower realized alumina price and higher input costs. Alcoa recorded revenue growth in Q1 across global end markets, including industrial products (14%), automotive (13%), packaging (11%), and commercial transportation (11%), compared to fourth quarter 2011. Compared to first quarter 2011, revenues were up in commercial transportation (32%), aerospace (15%), and automotive (7%), while revenues were down in industrial products (14%) and building and construction (5%). Alcoa is raising its 2012 global growth forecast for the aerospace market 3 percentage points (13-14%), and expects global growth in the automotive (3-7%), commercial transportation (1-5%), packaging (2-3%), building and construction (2.5 – 3.5%), and industrial gas turbine (1-2%) markets. Alcoa continues to project a global aluminum supply deficit in 2012 and reaffirmed its forecast that global aluminum demand would grow 7% in 2012, on top of the 10% growth seen in 2011.