Dubal second-quarter output up 8.3%

Dubai: State-owned smelter Dubai Aluminium Co's (Dubal) second-quarter output rose 8.3 per cent to 237,630 tonnes due to higher regional demand, a senior company official said on Monday.

"Our targeted production for 2008 remains approximately 950,000 tonnes," Khalid Bu Humaid, a Dubal general manager, said in an interview." Our production rose on higher demand for aluminium in the region and globally."

Around 22 per cent of Dubal's output last year was consumed in the Middle East, making it the company's third-largest market after Asia and Europe, Bu Humaid said.

First-half output rose 6.6 per cent to 466,012 tonnes.

The Gulf Arab oil-exporting region, basking in windfall oil revenue from a more than six-fold rise in oil prices, is witnessing a construction boom with more than $2 trillion worth of projects either announced or underway, the Middle East Economic Digest said in March.

Apart from hydrocarbons, aluminium is one of the largest industries in the UAE. In 2007, Dubal produced 889,548 tonnes of extrusion billets and foundry alloys, used mainly in construction, transport and electrical industries.