EGA's Walid Al Attar, architect of company's 'premium aluminium' marketing strategy, to step down after 37 years

United Arab Emirates : Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, today announced that Walid Al Attar, Chief Commercial Officer and architect of the marketing strategy that made EGA the biggest ‘premium aluminium’ producer in the world, is to step down after 37 years of service to the company.

Mr. Al Attar will continue to provide his expertise to EGA as a Senior Advisor to Chief Executive Officer Abdulnasser Bin Kalban.

Adel Abubakar, Chief Marketing Officer since February this year, will now report directly to EGA’s CEO. Mr. Abubakar has worked for the company since 2006, including spending almost a decade in the United States building EGA’s North American business. Mr. Abubakar will also assume responsibility for EGA’s Casthouses.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of EGA, said: “Walid Al Attar is a titan of our company and industry, and I thank him for his immense contributions to EGA over almost four decades of service. Walid joined Dubai Aluminium as a very young man, and rose to the top of our company through ability and drive. He is a role model I advise all young UAE Nationals joining EGA to emulate.”

Walid Al Attar said: “I feel a great sense of pride at everything we have achieved at EGA, starting as a small regional smelter and building a national industrial champion whose metal makes modern life possible all around the world. I look forward to supporting EGA as it continues to grow, and watching those I have helped develop take the company to new heights.”

Mr. Al Attar joined Dubai Aluminium in 1984 as a trainee, working first in the shipping department. He joined Marketing & Sales in 1994, playing a key role in EGA’s transition from selling commodity metal to traders to building direct relationships with customer making products using the metal. EGA’s focus on ‘premium aluminium’, made to customer specifications, makes EGA a world leader in maximising the value of its primary aluminium production.

Mr. Al Attar was appointed Chief Marketing Officer when EGA was formed through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium in 2014. In 2020 he took the role of Chief Commercial Officer, responsible for Marketing & Sales & Supply Chain.

Earlier this year, Mr. Al Attar was named ‘World’s Top Aluminium Executive 2020-2021’ at an annual global industry summit in Chicago, in recognition of his contributions to the aluminium industry.

-Ends-

Contacts at EGA:
Simon Buerk
sbuerk@ega.ae 

About EGA 

Since 1975, when it was founded as Dubai Aluminium by His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates Global Aluminium has been innovating aluminium to make modern life possible.

Today EGA is the world’s biggest ‘premium aluminium’ producer and the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry.

EGA is equally-owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai. It is the largest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.

EGA is an integrated aluminium producer, with operations from bauxite mining to the production of cast primary aluminium. EGA operates aluminium smelters in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, an alumina refinery in Al Taweelah and a bauxite mine and associated export facilities in the Republic of Guinea.

EGA’s aluminium is the second largest made-in-the UAE export after oil and gas. In 2020, EGA sold 2.52 million tonnes of cast metal. EGA is the only UAE producer and makes the UAE the fifth largest aluminium producing nation in the world.

EGA has more than 400 customers in over 50 countries. In recent years over 80 per cent of EGA’s production has been value added products, one of the highest proportions of any aluminium company in the world. In 2020, value added products made up 72 per cent of total sales despite EGA’s flexing of its product mix in response to fluctuating market demand caused by COVID-19’s impact on world manufacturing.

EGA’s aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, packaging, aerospace and electronics industries.

Around 10 per cent of EGA’s aluminium 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 supports 60,950 jobs. EGA itself employs over 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 smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines. In 2016 EGA became the first UAE industrial company to licence its core industrial process technology internationally.

As a corporate citizen of the UAE, EGA 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. In 2019, EGA’s Al Taweelah site became the first in the Middle East to receive certification from ASI for its sustainability practices and performance. EGA’s Jebel Ali site was certified in 2021. ASI certification is the aluminium industry’s internationally recognised standard for environmental and social performance and governance.

In 2021, EGA began production of CelestiAL solar aluminium, produced with solar power from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park on the outskirts of Dubai. EGA is the first company in the world to make aluminium commercially using the power of the sun.

EGA was formed in 2014 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium.

EGA’s Jebel Ali aluminium smelter began production as DUBAL in 1979. At almost five square kilometres, this 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 6,474 megawatts, making EGA the third largest electricity generator in the UAE after the Dubai and Abu Dhabi utilities. EGA also produces water through desalination units at its power plants.

EGA began production at Al Taweelah alumina refinery in April 2019. EGA’s alumina refinery is the first in the UAE and only the second in the Middle East. The project reduces the UAE’s dependence on imported alumina and supplies 40 per cent of EGA’s needs.

Bauxite exports from Guinea Alumina Corporation, EGA’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Guinea, began in August 2019. The GAC project was one of the largest greenfield investments in Guinea in over 40 years. 

For more information on EGA please visit www.ega.ae 

© Press Release 2021