Dubai: Six GCC smelter companies have joined to form the Gulf Aluminium Council (GAC) to increase competitiveness and efficiency.
The announcement was made Tuesday in Dubai during the Middle East Aluminium conference organised by MEED.
The council will oversee three million tonnes of aluminium production by its members by the end of this year.
Five established smelters will be represented by the council: Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), Dubai Aluminium Company (Dubal), Emirates Aluminium, Qatar Aluminium and Sohar Aluminium in Oman. The sixth member is Saudi Mining Company, which has announced plans to develop a fully integrated complex in Saudi Arabia scheduled for completion in 2013.
The smelters at Alba, Dubal and Sohar together produced more than two million metric tonnes of primary aluminium in 2009 and 5.6 per cent of the global market.
The smelters will have equal voting rights on the council's board, officials said.
"The overriding objectives of the council will be to support the successful growth of the primary aluminium industry in the GCC," Abdullah Kalban, president and chief executive of Dubal and board-elected chairman of GAC, told reporters in Dubai yesterday.
"Through the council, the members will continually explore opportunities for synergy between our operations, such as logistics and transportation, that will further improve our international competitiveness," he said.
GAC will also serve as a coordinated voice for the aluminium industry in the Gulf, acting as a representative body for its members.
This year, the Middle East will recover to pre-crisis aluminium demand levels of 2008, according to Marco Georgiou, head of Aluminium Primary and Products, CRU Analysis, a research firm that covers mining, metals, power and cable sectors.
This year's consumption will grow by over 12 per cent on a global scale, with most of the demand coming from the Middle East, China and India.
Industry Forecast
World production will hit 41 million tonnes, and consumption will be 38 million tonnes, Georgiou predicted at an aluminium conference in Dubai yesterday.
He said that this year and next, China, the Middle East and India will account for 97 per cent of 7.9 million tonnes per year of global capacity increases and lead the growth for aluminium in the next 12 to 12 years.
The Arab region currently enjoys a global cost advantage and the top priority for regional aluminium smelters will be to maintain their "very attractive position on the cost curve for future growth," Georgiou said.
