Alcoa sees record aluminium shortage even as Goldman predicts glut

New York

ALCOA Inc, which is spinning off aluminium assets later this year, sees something that much of the market does not: an end to the prolonged surplus that left prices near a six-year low.

With about half the world's aluminium plants losing money, the US company that invented the domestic industry more than a century ago said that global demand will exceed production this year by a record 1.2 million tonnes, forcing car and appliance makers to draw down inventories. While others predict smaller deficits, many banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc and producers such as Norsk Hydro ASA said that the glut will only get bigger.