Emal's upcoming smelter gets early orders

Dubai: Emirates Aluminium (Emal), which is building the world's biggest smelter, has orders for output from the $5.7 billion facility set to start next year, the company's CEO said.

"We have some sales commitments already," Duncan Hedditch said yesterday in an interview at the CRU World Aluminium Conference in Dubai. "We are pleased with the early response," he said, without elaborating on how much output was contracted for sale.

The project, known as Emal, is on schedule to produce 'first metal' next April after commissioning of the facility starts this December, Hedditch said.

Middle Eastern countries such as the UAE are seeking to expand into businesses including metals, petrochemicals and plastics that can benefit from access to ample supplies of cheap fuel.

Emal will have an initial capacity of 700,000 metric tonnes and aims to double in size in a planned second phase. Dubai Aluminium, the largest smelter in the Middle East, and Mubadala Development, the Abu Dhabi state-run investment vehicle, are partners in the Emal project.

Output will likely reach as much as 300,000 tonnes a year by the end of 2010 before ramping up to full capacity within a year.