Novelis China focuses on electronics, car supplies and cans.

Aluminum products maker Novelis Inc. may sell more of its non-core foil interests after 2012 to focus on increasing sales for products like drinks cans, and for use in cars and electronics, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

The U.S. unit of India’s Hindalco Industries Ltd. said in March it was selling three aluminum foil-manufacturing plants in Europe and said in April it would close its Saguenay Works in Jonquière.

The world’s largest producer of rolled aluminum products does not plan asset sales beyond those already announced this year, but could sell more underperforming assets in the years to come.

“We have a few more assets (that may be sold), but we’ve done a pretty good job, as in the last three years we’ve closed around 10 facilities and managed to add incremental capacity that more than offset that,” Novelis CEO Philip Martens told Reuters.

“We are now focused on our three prime products,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of an aluminum conference in Abu Dhabi, referring to electronics, car supplies and cans.

Novelis is building a $100-million aluminum rolling facility in China that will cater for the booming auto industry there. With the global auto industry growing at a rate of around 20 per cent, Martens said he was confident of strong demand for its product when the plant opens in two and a half years’ time, especially in the booming Chinese market.

Novelis estimates that almost 240 billion aluminum drinks cans are manufactured worldwide each year, and rapid growth in the Chinese soft drinks market could spur it to expand and diversify its auto industry focused plant.

“If I look at beverage cans, the fastest-growing area is China,” he said.

Novelis expects global aluminum demand to grow by around six per cent annually but still sees oversupply in the market in early 2012.

“There is a lot of inventory sitting in warehouses slowly going into the market, so there is still overcapacity,” Martens said.