Alcoa chief executive Bill Oplinger says the American aluminium giant will “listen better” to Australian stakeholders amid growing confidence he will secure the support of a Chinese state-owned entity in his bid for Australian partner Alumina.

Alcoa’s all-scrip bid for Alumina valued the target at $3.3 billion when it was announced in February, but the deal is worth closer to $4.65 billion on Wednesday after an 18 per cent rally in aluminium prices over the past seven weeks.