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Bahrain aluminium producer Alba plans to boost production by 40%
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the two smelters currently in operation in the Gulf, said it is working on a plan to boost production capacity by about 40 per cent to benefit from rising aluminium demand.
- By Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:27 February 19, 2008
Dubai: Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the two smelters currently in operation in the Gulf, said it is working on a plan to boost production capacity by about 40 per cent to benefit from rising aluminium demand.
Alba currently produces 860,000 tonnes of primary aluminum per year but has scope for adding 350,000 tonnes at its plant.
"It depends on getting gas supplies. We are discussing it with a lot of people," Barry Marshall, general manager for business development at Alba, told Gulf News. "We have scope for 350,000 tonnes more. We are working on a plan," Marshall said.
Alba supplies 46 per cent of its output to the local Bahraini market and exports the rest is exported.
As world demand for the metal increases due to industrial growth, several new aluminum smelter projects have been announced. Gulf producers are taking advantage of cheap energy in the region, a major component of a smelter's operating cost.
Marshall said Alba is looking to expand abroad through joint ventures in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.
Alba's rival Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) has a capacity to produce 900,000 tonnes per year and has embarked on a number of new large smelter projects.
Emirates Aluminium (Emal), a joint venture between Dubal and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Development Company, will start production with a capacity of 700,000 tonnes in the first phase in December 2010, chief executive officer Duncan Hedditch said. The plant's capacity can be doubled in the second phase.
Emal International is also building a 1.4 million tonne per year capacity smelter in two phases in Saudi Arabia and is on looking for a project in Algeria.
In Oman, Sohar Aluminium will start production in June with an initial capacity of 350,000 tonnes per year. Qatar Aluminium is expected to come onstream in the last quarter of 2009.
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