Alcoa gets 'vocal' over weak dollar

US manufacturing companies are being hurt rather than helped by the weak dollar, according to Klaus Kleinfeld, chief executive of Alcoa. Mr Kleinfeld told the Financial Times that he had discussed with officials in Washington the rapid decline in the dollar and said other companies were also beginning to become "vocal" about it. The head of Alcoa, one of the world's largest aluminium producers, said: "It is actually hurting us substantially. There is this thought in the US that a weak dollar has been an additional stimulus programme for US companies." But, he said, "most [US manufacturing companies] have an even larger manufacturing base today outside of the US". Mr Kleinfeld added: "It is particularly nasty when you have, like us, most of your sales in dollars . . . and you have cost structures which are in local currencies that have strongly increased like the Brazilian real, the Australian dollar, even the Canadian dollar." Many mining companies - especially those operating in South Africa - have in recent months said dollar weakness and local currency strength is eroding their earnings and weighing heavily on their financial recovery. But Mr Kleinfeld's comments suggest the problem extends much further. Alcoa makes aluminium as well as products such as wheels and fasteners. Mr Kleinfeld declined to put a figure on the financial impact the weak dollar was having on Alcoa. But he said: "I wouldn't want to put a number out, but it's really substantial, because God knows where this is going, we've been seeing such swings." The 52-year-old German said that while he thought there were no concerted lobbying efforts taking place over the weak dollar, he thought "that there are US-headquartered companies that have similar experiences. They are starting to be vocal about it". His tenure at Alcoa so far has been defined by the financial crisis and its effect on industrial production. Alcoa responded quickly to the slump in demand, shutting down the 20 per cent of its production capacity that was most expensive. It also cut its workforce by one-third and raised $1.4bn in March. Mr Kleinfeld said he did not foresee any imminent restarts for the mothballed production facilities.