The company also said production costs should come down when a new Saudi Arabian smelter starts up, and it expects to profit more from a change in its contract pricing system as global metal demand continues to rise.

“On rolled products — we set a target of adding $2.5 billion revenue to the top line by 2013,” he said of the business that produces flat-rolled aluminum for the auto and aviation markets, among others.

“I believe we will get 50 to 60 percent of that revenue growth this year,” Kleinfeld said at the company’s investor day meeting at an Alcoa plant in Davenport, Iowa.

He said much of the growth has been from the auto industry, where new fuel efficiency requirements are driving demand for lighter-weight car and truck bodies. Also, there was sales growth in the aerospace sector, where plane makers have a considerable backlog of orders.

Kleinfeld also said the company expects a boost in its engineered products business, which provides specialized aluminum products for various industries.

“This is an undiscovered gem,” he told an audience that included Wall Street analysts.

“We set a revenue growth target of $1.6 billion by 2013 and I believe we can generate 40 to 45 percent growth in 2011.”

Kleinfeld said “headwinds” from global economic woes as well as currency movements and energy costs, are affecting the company’s other two businesses — the mining of bauxite which is refined into alumina, and the smelting of alumina into primary aluminum.

But Alcoa is lowering costs in the upstream businesses to capture increased value from growing aluminum demand.

He said he expects to generate more revenue from alumina as the company switches away from London Metal Exchange, or LME, pricing to a system based on alumina spot price indexes. On primary metal, Alcoa expects costs to come down once its new Maaden smelter in Saudi Arabia comes on line in 2014.

Last year, Alcoa had total revenue of $21 billion, an increase from $18.4 billion in 2009. In the third quarter of 2011, revenue was $6.4 billion, with much of the sales growth coming from autos, commercial transport, packaging and aerospace, the company said.

Alcoa stock fell 4.5 percent to $10.29 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange on a day when the broader market was down.

Tim Reyes, Alcoa’s vice president for global primary products, said aluminum demand growth is accelerating and consumption of the metal is rising at 1.6 times the global gross domestic product rate.

Alcoa still expects a near doubling of aluminum demand in the next 10 years, driven largely by China and emerging markets, he said. To achieve that, demand would have to grow at 6.5 percent per year.

“But we are already seeing a 12-percent growth for 2011 over 2010,” Reyes said, adding that China is in deficit in aluminum production and is close to becoming a net importer.

He and Kleinfeld also noted a key trend — the population explosion.

“The most significant thing was a couple of weeks ago, the 7-billionth child was born,” said Kleinfeld, adding that increasing urbanization changes the demand structure, the need for infrastructure and how societies work.

“It spells opportunities for us and this miracle metal that is both strong and lightweight, malleable and recyclable,” the Alcoa chief said.

Reyes said Asia’s middle-class population is expected to grow by 66 percent by 2030, adding 3.2 billion people.

“Those people will be aluminum consumers.”

China, he said, is expected to increase production by 67 percent by 2015, while the Middle East could boost production capacity by 15 percent.

But India has not executed on its promise, said Reyes. “They are short of power and import coal, so some producers are not able to power smelters.

“India has executed on only 50 percent of capacity additions they had promised,” he said.

China, too, has power problems and some of the highest-cost rates from the grid. Reyes said 7-1/2 percent of energy went into nonferrous metal production in China, but the industry only contributed 2-1/2 percent to China’s GDP.