RIYADH Jan 24 （Reuters） - U.S. aluminium giant Alcoa （AA.N: Quote） expects continuous strong demand for aluminium this year driven by China and other Asian countries, the company's chief executive said on Monday.
"We continue to believe demand is going up, this year we project demand growth of 12 percent," Klaus Kleinfeld told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Riyadh.
"China will be growing around 15 percent, last year 21 percent, we see a lot of emerging economies strengthening in places like Southeast Asia," Kleinfeld said, adding that Europe and the United States have shown stable signs of improvement.
Alcoa is building a giant aluminium complex with state-run miner Saudi Arabian Mining Co （Maaden） in Ras Az Zawr on the Gulf coast of the kingdom.
Kleinfeld reiterated the first phase of the project which includes a smelter and a rolling mill would be up and running by 2013 while a bauxite mine and an alumina refinery is set to start by 2014.
He said that it was premature to talk about plans to expand the project given its size was "already pretty challenging".
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