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ALUMINIUM MI DDL E EAST
Ma’aden Alcoa JV orders slitting
line from Danieli Fröhling, again
Already in 2010 Danieli Fröhling (DF) received
an order for the supply of two cutting lines
for the first phase of the Alcoa Ma’aden rolling
mill. In 2012, the joint venture awarded
DF another order for a slitting line with connected
packaging and slit coil handling area.
The new line to be supplied includes the full
scope starting from coil entry area, pre-leveler
to reduce coil-set, inline coil preparation with
drum shear, the longitudinal cutting area,
strip braking and electrostatic oiling section
and recoiling area. All auxiliary units as well as
the automation and electrics will be supplied
too. The line will be supplied in 2013, and will
process the first material in 2014.
bn) in the form of a five-year Murabaha revolving
loan from thirteen banks. The deal
was 2.5 times oversubscribed, which demonstrates
the trust in Ma’aden’s credit-worthiness.
Murabaha is an Islamic agreement
whereby the financier buys a physical asset,
or goods, and sells it to the customer (in this
case, Ma’aden) at a marked-up price to what
it was bought for, so avoiding any interestrelated
loans, which are banned.
Zurich-based ABB won orders worth
around USD24m from Ma’aden Aluminium
Co. to execute a fast-track transmission substation
project. The orders were booked in the
second quarter of 2012. ABB will design, engineer
and supply a new 380 kV outdoor gasinsulated
switchgear (GIS) substation at the
Raz Al Khair power plant that will export
800 MW of power from the plant to the national
transmission grid, and will feed the new
smelter. The project is scheduled for completion
within ten months. Scope and supply
include high-voltage outdoor GIS, communication
and auxiliary systems and IEC 61850
compliant substation automation, control and
protection.
Ma’aden and Alcoa celebrated the production
of first hot metal on 12 December. This
marks the successful commissioning of the
first of 720 pots, and is an important step toward
commercial production at the smelter.
Start of production was achieved in only 25
months from the pouring of first concrete.
Engineer Abdullah Busfar, chairman of the
Ma’aden Aluminium JV, commented: “From
the outset this has been a project managed to
achieve both cost and schedule targets. It is
just 29 months since the joint venture issued
Bechtel with a Notice to Proceed with construction.”
On 12 December, Alcoa and Ma’aden
also broke ground for the construction of expanded
rolling mill capabilities at Ras Al Khair.
This will enable the facility to supply aluminium
automotive, building and construction
sheet, and foil stock to the Kingdom’s developing
new industry and other global markets
beginning in 2014. The hot and cold rolling
mill as well as the annealing and coating line
will be supplied by SMS Siemag. The machine
builder is responsible for the design, manufacture,
erection supervision and commissioning
of the line. The whole rolling mill complex
is to go on stream this year while the annealing
and coating line will start production
in 2014.
Author
Dipl.-Ing. R. P. Pawlek is founder of TS+C, Technical
Info Services and Consulting, Sierre (Switzerland)
and a well-known expert of the global aluminium
industry.
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