Aerospace and automobile sector helped Alcoa to a quarterly profit

Stronger demand for aluminum products from airplane and automobile producers helped Alcoa Inc's third-quarter profit beat Wall Street's expectations despite weak aluminum prices and worries about China's slumping economy.

But, even with its strong downstream business, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld said the company had noticed a "slight slowdown" in some regions and end markets.

Kleinfeld, however, was bullish about Alcoa's downstream businesses, noting that the aerospace and automobile markets were coming back strongly from the recession.

"Global aerospace remains solid," with a backlog of 8,500 planes, or eight years work, he said. "In autos, we are seeing an increase of 11 to 15 percent (annual) growth in North America."

Airplane maker Boeing Co, truck builder Navistar International Corp and other manufacturers have been using more engineered aluminum parts from Alcoa to lighten the weight of planes and vehicles.

Making aluminum bolts, wheels, aircraft fuselages and other components for these customers is proving more lucrative for Alcoa than just supplying basic aluminum of which the price has dropped to near two-year lows.

Alcoa's core metal-making business is struggling to make a profit.

"It looks like the tone of the quarter was slightly better-than-expected, particularly in the downstream business," Kuni Chen, an analyst at CRT Capital Group, said of the company's units that sell to manufacturers.

Alcoa's stock was unchanged from its $9.13 close in after-hours trading on the New York Stock Exchange.