``We are looking at various possibilities, either in the aluminium, alumina or donwstream products in India,'' Alcoa Asia Ltd director- India (corporate development) MK Prem Kumar told PTI.

The aluminium major had been studying the potential of the Indian sector for the past 15 months, but was yet to take any clear-cut decisions about its possible exposure and the exact areas of investment, he said.

The US-based multinational at present has a joint venture with Associated Cement Company (ACC) - Alcoa ACC Industrial Chemicals Ltd - for manufacturing refractory products at Falta, near Calcutta.

Alcoa had planned to set-up an alumina refinery with L&T four years back but the project could not take off.

Alcoa is one of the world's largest aluminium companies with global capacity of four million tonnes (mt) of aluminium, 12 mt of alumina - raw material for manufacturing aluminium and is also engaged in manufacturing various value-added products from the white metal.

On the company's plans to acquire the Government's stake in the public sector Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco), Kumar said, ``Alcoa would consider the proposal of acquiring the stake when the opportunity comes.''

The Government had announced to divest its 51 per cent stake in Balco to a strategic partner with outright change in the management and already appointed Jardine Fleming as a global advisor to find the partner.

Elaborating on the prospects of the Indian aluminium sector, he said the sector had good growth potential and was growing faster than that in the developed countries.

He said, the majority of the growth in demand for aluminium was expected to come from new areas and the automobile sector.

``With the growth of the automobile sector, demand for aluminium will increase as the manufacturers will prefer aluminium over other metals,'' Kumar said.