Alcoa Hits Its Earnings Target, Raises Its Outlook

Alcoa kicked off earnings season by hitting its earnings target Tuesday as cost cuts helped offset a drop in aluminum prices.

The company also said it expects global aluminum demand to rise to 7 percent for 2013, up from 6 percent in 2012.

"What we're seeing in the world market and our end markets is China is clearly coming back," said the company's CEO, Klaus Kleinfeld, on CNBC. "I would not be surprised if we saw GDP growth above 8 percent. Europe is muddling through, better than most people would have expected ... So the eyes are basically on the U.S."

Investors cheered the report, sending shares of the the largest U.S. aluminum producer up after-hours. (Click here to get the latest quote.)

For the fourth quarter, the company reported net income of $242 million, or 21 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $191 million, or 18 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding items, the company reported earnings of 6 cents per share, above the quarterly loss of 3 cents a share it posted in the year-earlier period.

Revenue decreased 2 percent to $5.9 billion from $5.99 billion a year ago.

"On the outlook side, I'm more optimistic that we're going in 2013 into a year that has upside potential compared to where we came from," Kleinfeld said. "The big issue is what is going to happen on the debt-ceiling side because the debate around it is more damaging than resolving the whole thing."

In the end markets, Kleinfeld said "some of the things we are seeing in the U.S. are pretty encouraging" and cited aerospace, automotive, and building and construction.