23 August 2017

In line with its commitment towards Safety Tomorrowland, Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) announces that it has reached an outstanding milestone in its safety performance with Line 6 Expansion Project (Line 6 smelter, Power Station 5 and Power Distribution System) achieving 2,080,693 safe man-hours without Lost Time Injury (LTI) on 31 July 2017.

On this achievement, Alba’s Chief Executive Officer, Tim Murray, said:

“We are very pleased to safely progress towards expanding our production at the plant with our landmark project - Line 6 Expansion Project.

I thank our employees and contractors for their commitment to embrace Safety and for setting new standards in our Safety performance with Line 6 construction underway.”

-Ends-

About Alba:
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) - one of the largest and modern aluminium smelters in the world - is renowned for its premium grade aluminium products, technological strength and innovative policies, strict environmental guidelines and high track record for safety. Established in 1971 as a 120,000 tonnes per annum smelter, Alba today produces more than 971,000 metric tonnes per annum of the highest grade aluminium, with products including standard and T-ingots, extrusion billets, rolling slab, properzi ingots, and molten aluminium.

Alba is listed on both the Bahrain Bourse and London Stock Exchange, and the Company’s shareholders are Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (69.38%), SABIC Industrial Investment Company (20.62%) and the General Public (10%).

About Line 6 Expansion Project
Alba’s Line 6 Expansion Project is one of the largest brownfield developments in the region. Expected to begin production by early 2019, this Project will boost the smelter’s per-annum production by 540,000 metric tonnes, bringing its total production capacity to 1.5 million metric tonnes per year.

With a CAPEX of approximately US$ 3 billion, the Line 6 Expansion Project involves the construction of a sixth pot line utilising EGA’s proprietary DX+ Ultra Technology, a 1,792 MW power station and other industrial services.

Bechtel is the EPCM contractor for the Line 6 Expansion Project smelter. For Power Station 5 (PS 5), GE and GAMA Consortium was awarded the EPC contract, while Siemens is the Power Distribution System contractor.  J.P. Morgan, Gulf International Bank (GIB) and National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) are the Financial Advisors for this Project.

In June 2015, Alba Board approved the Line 6 Expansion Project and in November 2015, Alba secured the natural gas supply for this Project.

Alba successfully closed a US$ 1.5 Billion syndicated term-loan facility comprising two tranches: Conventional Facility & and Islamic Facility in October 2016 as well as c. US$ 700 million Export Credit Financing (Euler Hermes and SERV-covered facilities) in July 2017. The Company is looking to secure the second tranche of the Export Credit Agency (ECAs) within the second half of 2017.

The Front End Engineering Design (FEED) study for the Project was completed in the first quarter of 2017 while the construction site-works have started in the second quarter of 2017 and will be completed by September 2017.  Alba has laid the First Concrete in Potline 6 Foundation in May 2017 wherein the concrete foundations will reach 85,000 m3 upon completion by December 2018.

The Line 6 Expansion Project will make Alba the world’s largest single-site aluminium smelter and be a significant economic boost for the Kingdom of Bahrain due to the many co-investment opportunities through local and foreign aluminium investments.

© Press Release 2017