EGA reveals USA $4 billion aluminium smelter plans
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has unveiled plans to construct a $4 billion aluminium facility in the USA. The plant in Oklahoma is expected to have a production capacity of 600 thousand tonnes of primary aluminium per year.
This would nearly double the United States’ production of an essential material for modern life and for national security. The Oklahoma location is subject to the finalisation of a competitive long-term power supply for the plant and state and local investment incentives and tax credit arrangements.
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) is in negotiations with the Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) and the Oklahoma state government. EGA has already signed an exclusive land option agreement for a site in the industrial park at Tulsa Port of Inola, near Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Tulsa Port of Inola is located on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (M-KARNS), which is connected to the Mississippi River system and provides for bulk freight movement.
Some 85% of the aluminium needs of American industries, from automotive to aviation and construction, are currently met by imports.
Construction of the facility is expected to begin after a feasibility study and by the end of 2026, with first hot metal by the end of the decade. It will be the first new primary aluminium production plant in the US since 1980.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “The United States has been an important market for EGA for several decades, and we know there is strong demand for our high-quality metal ‘made in America’.
“EGA has the skills, technology and capital to start rebuilding this great American industry, and in Oklahoma I am confident we will secure the right conditions to do so.
“This is an important moment for EGA, and for the economic relationship between the United States and the United Arab Emirates.”
Kevin Stitt, Governor of the State of Oklahoma, said: “We want more goods to be manufactured in Oklahoma and EGA is the perfect partner.
“My administration has worked closely with the company for over a year to clear the way for the first new primary aluminium production plant in the United States for more than four decades right here in our great state.
“EGA’s new plant will be the heart of a broader hub for strategic industry in Oklahoma, creating jobs and opportunity for Oklahomans as well as enhancing economic resilience and national security for all Americans.”
The project is expected to create up to 4,000 local construction jobs at peak. In operation, the aluminium facility is expected to create up to 1,000 direct, permanent local jobs on site.
In addition, the new primary aluminium production plant is expected to spur the development of a new local aluminium-focused industrial hub, with further employment and economic opportunities in the upstream supply chain and in new downstream aluminium manufacturing.
