Alcoa 2012 Annual Report Download - page 15

Arabia, all of which present opportunities for substantial growth. Governmental policies, laws and regulations, and
other economic factors, including inflation and fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates, affect
the results of operations in these countries.
Alcoa’s operations consist of four worldwide reportable segments: Alumina, Primary Metals, Global Rolled Products,
and Engineered Products and Solutions.
Description of the Business
Information describing Alcoa’s businesses can be found on the indicated pages of this report:
Item Page(s)
Discussion of Recent Business Developments:
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations:
Overview—Results of Operations (Earnings Summary) ........................................ 53
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements:
Note D. Restructuring and Other Charges ............................................... 99
Note F. Acquisitions and Divestitures .................................................. 104
Segment Information:
Business Descriptions, Principal Products, Principal Markets, Methods of Distribution, Seasonality and
Dependence Upon Customers:
Alumina .......................................................................... 59
Primary Metals .................................................................... 60
Global Rolled Products .............................................................. 62
Engineered Products and Solutions .................................................... 63
Financial Information about Segments and Financial Information about Geographic Areas:
Note Q. Segment and Geographic Area Information .......................................... 125
The following tables and related discussion of the Company’s Bauxite Interests, Alumina Refining and Primary
Aluminum Facilities and Capacities, Global Rolled Products, Engineered Products and Solutions and Corporate
Facilities provide additional description of Alcoa’s businesses. The Alumina segment primarily consists of a series of
affiliated operating entities referred to as Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals (AWAC). Alcoa owns 60% and
Alumina Limited owns 40% of these individual entities. For more information on AWAC, see Exhibit Nos. 10(a)
through 10(f)(1) to this report.
Bauxite Interests
Aluminum is one of the most plentiful elements in the earth’s crust and is produced primarily from bauxite, an ore
containing aluminum in the form of aluminum oxide, commonly referred to as alumina. Aluminum is made by
extracting alumina from bauxite and then removing oxygen from the alumina. Alcoa processes most of the bauxite that
it mines into alumina. The Company obtains bauxite from its own resources and from those belonging to the AWAC
enterprise, located in the countries listed in the table below, as well as pursuant to both long-term and short-term
contracts and mining leases. In 2012, Alcoa consumed 45 million metric tons (mt) of bauxite from AWAC and its own
resources, 7.1 million mt from related third parties and 1.1 million mt from unrelated third parties. Tons of bauxite are
reported as bone dry metric tons (bdmt) unless otherwise stated. See the glossary of bauxite mining related terms at the
end of this section.
The Company has access to large bauxite deposit areas with mining rights that extend in most cases more than 20 years
from today. For purposes of evaluating the amount of bauxite that will be available to supply as feedstock to its
refineries, the Company considers both estimates of bauxite resources as well as calculated bauxite reserves. Bauxite
resources represent deposits for which tonnage, densities, shape, physical characteristics, grade and mineral content can
be estimated with a reasonable level of confidence based on the amount of exploration sampling and testing
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