Abu Dhabi: The first structural steel for Emirates Aluminium’s (Emal) Phase II expansion was erected July 29, 2012, Emal, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and Dubai Aluminium (Dubal), said in a statement.
It is the latest milestone for the UAE flagship industrial project and brings the company another step closer to becoming one of the world’s largest single-site aluminium smelters. Once completed in 2014, the potline at the Al Taweelah site will be the longest in the world at 1.7 km,” the company pointed out.
Saeed Al Mazrooei, Emal President and CEO, said “I am pleased to see phase II progressing on schedule. This milestone which was achieved as per plan is very critical to our first hot metal date.”
Al Mazrooei, told the Gulf News:”Aluminium global demand is forecasted to have a growth of 5 per cent year on year. Our confidence in the market is reflected in our Phase II expansion and the addition of a new product — foundry — to our product portfolio to reflect changing demand in the market.”
For his part Yousuf Bastaki, Emal Vice President, said: “The special steel structures are the first visible signs of our Phase II expansion and brings us yet another step closer to meeting the ambitious targets we have set ourselves. Emal is also pleased to cooperate with Emirates Steel who supplied the steel required for its expansion work.
In total it will take 120 of the specially designed structures to facilitate the additional 444 reductions pots required to expand production to 1.3 million metric tonnes per year. It will take around one year to complete the installation of all 120 structures, the statement concluded.
Last month, Emal nnounced the production of 1.5 million tonnes of hot metal.
Emal’s production by end of 2012 will be 800,000 metric tonnnes,” said Mazrooei.
The CEO pointed out that the company mainly exports to more than 200 customers in 34 countries including Japan, USA, Europe, South Asia, the Middle East and GCC states.
“We are producing about 100,000 metric tonnes for the local market and about 30 per cent of our hot liquid metal is for local market,” continued Mazrooei.
“There is high potential for local downstream industry. The close proximity of the metal park located in KIZAD next to the Al Taweelah site will provide a lot of opportunity for Emal to provide both hot metal and cast products to private entities located there. Agreements have already been signed, and we aim to ramp up further agreements,” he added.
“By 2014, Emal will be one of the world’s largest single-site Aluminium smelters. ,” he explained.
He pointed out that in 2011 an additional investment of $4.5 billion to fund the expansion of our smelter to include the world’s longest single potline.
“Upon completion in 2014 our annual production will reach around 1.3 million metric tonnes,” Mazrooei clarified.
In the past years the Gulf’s share of global production has risen from 2.8 to 7.5 per cent and capacity across the region is set to increase further, said Mazrooei.
“The UAE contributes a major portion of the 3.6 million tonnes produced by Gulf smelters last year, and will continue to do so as total production climbs to 5 million tonnes over the next three years,” he remarked.
Emal was born as a $5.7 billion joint venture between Dubal (Dubai Aluminium) and Mubadala (the Abu Dhabi investment company) in 2007.
