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Emal starts production ahead of schedule

The Emirates Aluminium (Emal) , a joint venture between Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Development Company and Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) and the world's largest smelter, yesterday went online with the first production of aluminium.

With this, the company started production five months ahead of schedule.

According to the company, they energised their first of 756 pots ahead of its schedule to coincide with and mark the 38th National Day of the country.

The plant, which was developed with a total cost of $7.5 billion, is located at Sheikh Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone, emirate's first free zone being developed in Taweelah. It will produce 1.4 million tons of aluminium a year in the first phase with capacity increasing with further expansions.

Mubadala COO Waleed Ahmed Al Muhairi said products from the plant will both be marketed locally and internationally.

He said the first two markets for the Emal products will be China and Europe. "We think we are going to start essentially to market the products to China and Europe," he said.

Emal CEO Duncan Hedditch said the first production was memorable in the company history. He said with the first pot already energised, it leaves with 755 more pots to be energised and that will take place soon.

"So our work is far more over, but today we began producing metal for the first time, and that is something we can all be very proud of," he said.

According to him, original estimates indicated that the energising of the first pot in the smelter's pot-room would only take place in the first quarter, but exceeding those expectation had long been a goal of the Emal construction teams.

The work on world's largest single site of an aluminium complex began soon after the formation of the joint venture in February 2007. It is being developed in two phases - the first at the end of 2010 will produce 756,000 tons of aluminium per annum and 1.4 million tons annually at the end of the second phase. The complex, the largest project in the country outside oil and gas industry, is spread over an area of six square kilometres in the industrial zone.

The construction of the complex involves more than 17,000 local and international contractor workers and has a workforce of 2,000 people directly employed during operations.

Commenting on the operations, Project Director Yousuf Bastaki said Emal does not want to over-promise and under-deliver. He said: "We ecstatic that we have been able to do thin in time for the National Day. This project has long been a cornerstone of the UAE's diversification strategy, so it is exciting that we can tie this milestone to a day of huge national pride."

© Emirates Business 24/7 2009