EGA completes Al Taweelah smelter expansion
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, today announced the completion of an expansion to the company’s Al Taweelah smelter in Abu Dhabi.
The expansion added 66 new reduction cells in total to the three potlines at Al Taweelah, boosting production capacity by some 78,000 tonnes of hot metal per year at one of the largest aluminium smelters in the world.
All the new reduction cells have been built using EGA technology developed in the UAE. EGA has used its own technology in every smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines.
EGA Chief Executive Officer, Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, said: “The completion of this expansion project adds to our production capacity amid strong demand for aluminium as the world builds back better from COVID-19. The expansion was delivered below budget and on schedule, and with zero injuries leading to time of work, despite the challenges of execution during the pandemic.
“All 2,843 reduction cells at EGA use our own efficient technology developed in the UAE, an important source of competitive advantage and pride for us as a leader in the global aluminium industry.”
The expansion to Al Taweelah was completed in three phases. The first phase was commissioned in April, and the second in July. The final phase saw the installation of 14 new reduction cells at Potline 3.
EGA has developed its own aluminium smelting technology for more than 25 years.
The new reduction cells at Potlines 1 and 2 use EGA’s DX technology, while the new reduction cells in Potline 3 use EGA’s DX+ Ultra technology. Both are amongst the most energy efficient aluminium-smelting technologies in the world.
EGA became the first UAE industrial company to license its core process technology in 2016, in a deal with Aluminium Bahrain which was a major milestone for the development of a knowledge-based economy in the UAE.
In November last year, EGA signed an agreement with NEO Aluminio Colombia that could lead to the export of its DX+ Ultra technology for the development of the South American country’s first aluminium smelter. In December 2020 it signed a series of agreements with PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (INALUM) to upgrade the Indonesian company’s aluminium smelter in North Sumatra using EGA’s technological knowledge.
In the first half of 2021, EGA sold some 1.18 million tonnes of cast metal to customers in more than 50 countries. EGA produces one-in-every 25 tonnes of aluminium made worldwide. EGA’s metal is the largest UAE export after oil and gas, with the aluminium sector as a whole being one of the UAE’s most significant industries, accounting for 1.4% of the economy and supporting 60,000 UAE jobs.
