PHOTO
United Arab Emirates: Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, today opened its first office in China.
The office in Shanghai of EGA’s wholly-owned Chinese subsidiary will source raw materials and other supplies in China. EGA has procured over $500 million of supplies from China over the past two years.
The office will also deepen commercial ties by developing sales opportunities for bauxite from EGA’s under-development mine in the Republic of Guinea.
Abdulla Kalban, EGA’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, said: “China is already a substantial source of raw materials and supplies for EGA, and we expect the importance of China for our business to grow in the coming years.”
The UAE is strategically situated in West Asia, an area of focus for China under its ‘Belt and Road’ initiative which aims to revive ancient Silk Road trading links. China has been the UAE’s second largest trading partner since earlier this decade.
Bauxite is the ore from which aluminium is derived. China is the world’s largest bauxite importer and a major aluminium producer. Industry experts believe global demand for high-quality bauxite, particularly in China, will grow significantly over the next decade.
On completion, EGA’s bauxite mine in Guinea is expected to ramp up to produce 12 million tonnes of bauxite per year. The development of the mine and associated export facilities is the largest greenfield investment in Guinea in four decades.
Guinea has around 7 billion tonnes of bauxite resources, over a quarter of the global total. Guinean bauxite is amongst the highest quality worldwide. EGA’s concession in Guinea contains more than 1 billion tonnes of high quality bauxite.
-Ends-
Contacts at EGA:
Simon Buerk
sbuerk@ega.ae
056 3111 536
Khadija Al Marzooqi
kalmarzooqi@ega.ae
050 8777 850
Sahar Farhat
sfarhat@ega.ae
050 1213 420
About EGA
Emirates Global Aluminium is equally-owned by Mubadala Development Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai.
It is the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry, and the largest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.
EGA’s aluminium is the second largest made-in-the UAE export after oil and gas. EGA has a nameplate production capacity of 2.4 million tonnes of aluminium per year. EGA is the only UAE producer and makes the UAE the fourth largest aluminium producing nation in the world.
EGA has some 300 customers in more than 60 countries. About 80 per cent of EGA’s production is value added products, one of the highest proportions of any aluminium company in the world.
EGA’s aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, packaging, aerospace and electronics industries.
Over 10 per cent of EGA’s production is sold in the UAE to around 26 downstream aluminium companies that make products with EGA’s aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the UAE already employs around 30,000 people, making it the largest employer amongst the UAE’s energy intensive industries.
EGA itself employs around 7,000 of these people including almost 1,200 UAE Nationals.
EGA has focused on technology development for over 25 years. EGA has used its own technology for every expansion since the 1990s. In 2016 EGA became the first UAE industrial company to licence its core industrial process technology internationally.
As a corporate citizen of the UAE, Emirates Global Aluminium aspires in all its operations to be measured amongst the world’s leading metals and mining companies in meeting its environmental and social responsibilities.
In 2017, EGA became the first Middle East headquartered company to join the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, a global programme to foster greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminium industry.
EGA was formed in 2014 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium.
DUBAL’s Jebel Ali aluminium smelter began production in 1979. At almost five square kilometres, EGA’s Jebel Ali site is five times bigger than Dubai Mall.
EMAL started production in 2009 and its Al Taweelah aluminium smelter was the largest single-site aluminium smelter in the world when completed. EGA’s Al Taweelah site is five times bigger than Al Maryah Island at six square kilometres.
EGA has its own power stations at both sites, producing electricity to meet its needs. EGA’s electricity generation capacity is 5,450 megawatts, making EGA the third largest electricity generator in the UAE after the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority.
EGA also produces water through desalination units at its power plants. In addition to meeting its own water requirements, EGA supplies 1.5 per cent of the water needs of Dubai as well as commercial water customers and bottlers.
Today EGA is expanding upstream and internationally to secure the natural resources the UAE’s aluminium industry needs and create new revenue streams.
EGA’s wholly-owned subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation is building a bauxite mine and associated export infrastructure in the Republic of Guinea in West Africa, in the largest greenfield investment in that country in over 40 years.
In the UAE, EGA is building the country’s first alumina refinery at Al Taweelah. The project will reduce the UAE’s dependence on imported alumina and supply 75 per cent of the Al Taweelah smelter’s needs.
For more information on EGA please visit www.ega.ae.
© Press Release 2017
