BEIJING (Commodity Online): After the slump in 2009, aluminium consumption is set to shoot up in the coming three years.

Chief executive of Rio Tinto's Alcan division Jacynthe Cote told Chinese media that if there's one sector with enormous growth potential, it's aluminium.

According to reports, Rio Tinto was well positioned to deal with the consequences of the global recession, and the company was confident about the long-term outlook for aluminium demand.

With the combined impact of urbanisation and industrialisation, aluminium demand will grow in emerging countries in the coming years. Demand in industrialised countries should also grow by 2-3 per cent a year.

According to the Rio official, there was reason to be optimistic about the outlook for global growth, but it remained to be seen how much demand would recover in the aluminium industry.

Governments would need to consider a second economic stimulus and carefully assess when to raise interest rates.

Aluminium prices gained 68 per cent in the past 12 months on the London Metal Exchange.

Rio tinto