The State Of The Global Economy In Two Huge Slides

Global aluminum giant Alcoa just reported Q4 2012 earnings right in line with estimates, but sales were better than expected.

As part of its investor presentation, the company always includes the two slides found below. The reason we love these slides: they pack in a lot of information about the global economy.

The first slide looks at demand growth from industrial end markets. The second slide looks at demand growth based on regional end markets.

Of note is a big decline in demand from the North American trucking industry. Gains in demand from Chinese trucking almost offset the drop in North America, though.

In terms of the regional outlook, North America is the clear laggard, although this probably owes significantly to the decline in demand from the trucking industry.