UAE aluminium exports from East Coast to reach up to 300,000 tonnes under new EGA deal

EGA will initially route up to 250,000 tonnes of aluminium through the East Coast

Last updated: September 30, 2026 | 10:19

Nivetha Dayanand, Assistant Business Editor

2 MIN READ

UAE aluminium exports from East Coast to reach up to 300,000 tonnes under new EGA deal

Dubai: Emirates Global Aluminium will route up to 250,000 tonnes of aluminium through the UAE’s East Coast in the first year of a new agreement with Gulftainer, with volumes set to rise to as much as 300,000 tonnes in the second year.

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The agreement gives EGA another route for moving metal to customers overseas and forms part of its strategy to strengthen the efficiency and resilience of its outbound logistics.

EGA’s aluminium is the UAE’s biggest domestically produced export after oil and gas, while the company supplies more than 400 customers across more than 50 countries.

East Coast volumes set to increase

Volumes handled through the East Coast could increase further in subsequent years, according to the agreement.

Gulftainer will also further develop port capabilities to meet EGA’s requirements as export volumes increase.

EGA sold more than 2.83 million tonnes of cast metal in 2025, giving the company a substantial logistics requirement across its international customer base.

EGA is the biggest ‘premium aluminium’ producer in the world, and our customers in more than 50 countries need our metal. We have already made considerable progress diversifying our outbound logistics to ensure reliable deliveries. Today’s agreement with Gulftainer is another important step forward.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of Emirates Global Aluminium

Wider export network

The agreement adds capacity on the UAE’s East Coast as EGA continues to diversify the routes used to ship aluminium to international markets.

Farid Belbouab, Group CEO of Gulftainer, said: “This agreement goes far beyond logistics – it is about building resilience for UAE trade. By enabling Emirates Global Aluminium’s increasing logistics demand through the UAE’s East Coast, we are providing a strategic, efficient and reliable gateway to global markets. It underscores Gulftainer’s fully integrated platform in serving the nation’s most strategic industries.”

EGA is the UAE’s largest industrial company outside the oil and gas sector and describes itself as the world’s biggest producer of premium aluminium.

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Nivetha DayanandAssistant Business Editor

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

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