Dubal celebrates 30 years of industrial progress

Dubai: Dubai Aluminium Company (Dubal) celebrated its 30th anniversary yesterday.

Established to aid the diversification of the UAE economy by adding value to the country's natural resources, the state-owned enterprise is widely regarded as the industrial flagship of the UAE and is one of the largest non-oil contributors to Dubai's economy.

Dubal president and chief executive Abdullah J.M. Kalban said the company's roots stem back to May 1975, when the late Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum (then Ruler of Dubai) signed a decree establishing Dubal.

"Commercial production of aluminium at Dubal began in January 1980, [with] the entire planned production volume of 135,000 metric tonnes per annum having been pre-sold in North America.

"The plant comprised 360 reduction cells in three potlines, a 504MW power station and ancillary carbon, casthouse, port and other facilities," Kalban said. "Through a series of successive expansion projects in the intervening years, Dubal has evolved into the world's largest modern aluminium smelter with a captive power station.

"Currently, our major facilities comprise a 960,000 metric tonne-per-annum primary aluminium smelter, a 2,350 megawatt power station (at 30 degrees Celsius), a large carbon plant, three casthouses, a 30-million-gallon-per-day water desalination plant, laboratories, port and storage facilities."