24 December 2005
BEIRUT: The state-owned Dubai Aluminium Company (DUBAL) intends to create a $5.4 billion aluminium plant in Algeria, Algeria's news agency APS said on Wednesday.
According to an Algerian Industry Ministry statement, the project is for a full-fledged plant with different divisions: production, logistics and services units.
Dubal will also construct facilities that will provide auxiliary services to the aluminium plant.
These facilities consist of an independent thermal power station, a sea-water desalination plant and warehouses for imported raw materials such as aluminium and coke, said Abdullah Kalban, DUBAL's chief executive officer, during his visit to Algeria where he met Algerian Industry Minister Mahmoud Khedri.
One of the largest stand-alone smelting complexes worldwide, Dubal has a primary aluminium-production capacity of 686,000 tons a year and exports primary aluminium products to over 40 countries.
Dubal intends to boost its production capacity to 761,000 tons by 2006 and has embarked on the so-called Kestrel project at a total cost of $300 million.
To face a huge worldwide demand for aluminium products, GCC countries are tapping on their abundant spillover of cash liquidity from surging oil revenues to pump billions of dollars in aluminium production.
Moreover, oil producing countries enjoy a competitive advantage in the energy-intensive aluminum industry, whose global demand forecasts are good.
The current volume of annual aluminium production in GCC countries adds up to 10.5 million tons.
GCC aluminum manufacturers are endeavoring to boost production by 40 percent to 14.7 million tons by the beginning of 2006 as demand for crude aluminium is expected to surge in the next three years. - Zawya.com
