Aluminium giant has vested interest in smelter project, through joint venture with Mubadala Development Company.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: A high level delegation from Dubai Aluminium Company Limited ("DUBAL") - comprising His Excellency Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer (Vice Chairman), Mohammad Al Ghurair (Board Member), Abdulla Kalban (CEO) and Dr. Abdulrahman Al Awar (Director: Corporate Development, New Smelters) - paid a visit to the construction site of the new EMAL Smelter at Al Taweelah, Abu Dhabi on 11 May 2008. The project - which is the product of a joint venture between DUBAL and Mubadala Development Company, known as Emirates Aluminium ("EMAL") International - entails the development of a 1.4 million tonne per annum primary aluminium smelter plus associated utilities and infrastructure, in two equal phases. The first 700,000 tonne phase is scheduled for completion in 2010, with the first metal being tapped in 2011.
While on site, the DUBAL delegation met with members of EMAL's senior management team, notably Duncan Hedditch (CEO), Salman Dawood Salman (COO), and Yousuf Abdulla Bastaki (Project Director), among others. After a presentation on the project's progress, opportunities and challenges since its inception - the EPCM contracts for phase one were awarded during a historic groundbreaking ceremony on 31 May 2007; and on-site activities started in early-December 2007 with ground improvement works and site levelling work - Mr Bastaki led the delegates on a construction site tour, where detailed explanations were given of the various site activities along with updates on the overall site progress.
The project is on track, with overall progress at 12%. Engineering work is 30% complete; Power Plant concrete/stone piling work is 100% complete; and, in the potline area, stone column piling has progressed to 85%. Currently, there are nine contractors on site with more than 1,500 workers carrying out preparatory civil work for the first mass concrete, planned for May 2008.
A 'meet and greet' opportunity was facilitated at the end of the visit, allowing the delegates to meet with the DUBAL Secondees, EMAL Key Managers and EPCM Management team.
Clearly impressed by the progress to date, His Excellency expressed his appreciation of what he had seen and wished the team good luck on meeting the future challenges so as to achieve the set milestones.
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About Dubai Aluminium Company - DUBAL
DUBAL is ranked as the seventh largest producer of primary aluminium in the world, and currently ranks as the largest single-site aluminium smelter complex in the Western world and is also one of the single largest non-oil contributors to the economy of Dubai. Built on a 480-hectare site, DUBAL's major facilities comprise an 950,000 tonnes-per-annum primary aluminium smelter, a 2,400 megawatt power station, a large carbon plant, three casthouses, a 30-million-gallon-per-day water desalination plant, laboratories, port and storage facilities.
The company has the capacity to produce more than one million metric tonnes of high quality finished aluminium products a year, in three main forms: foundry alloy for automotive applications, extrusion billet for construction purposes and high purity aluminium for the electronics and aerospace industries. A dynamic growth strategy will increase annual production volumes of hot metal to almost one million metric tonnes by 2008.
DUBAL serves 280 customers in 44 countries predominantly in the Far East, Europe, the ASEAN region, the Middle East and Mediterranean region, and North America. The company holds ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certification; and has twice won the Dubai Quality Award in the Production and Manufacturing sector (1996 and 2000).
For further information, please contact:
Mohammed A Yahya
Manager, Corporate Affairs: DUBAL
Tel: +971 4 884 6666
Fax: +971 4 884 6919
Walid El-Tigi
Arabia PR FZ LLC
Tel: + 971 4 391 1201
Fax: + 971 4 390 4511
www.arabiapr.com
email: walid@arabiapr.com
© Press Release 2008
