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ECONOMICS
Primary aluminium industry during the first half of 2013, Part II
Rudolf P. Pawlek, Sierre
This overview covers the events of
the primary aluminium industry
during the first half of the year
2013. While Part I, published in
ALUMINIUM 7-8/2013, focused
on Africa, America, Australia and
Europe, Part II looks at the Middle
East and Asia. One of the latest
highlights in the aluminium industry
was the announcement of Mubadala
Development Co. of Abu Dhabi and
ICD of Dubai to merge the businesses
of Dubai Aluminium and
Emirates Aluminium and thus create
‘Emirates Global Aluminium’ – the
fifth-largest global aluminium company
by production.
MIDDLE EAST & ASIA
ABU DHABI: In June Emirates Aluminium
(Emal) celebrated the installation of the final
steel structure for the potline of its Phase II
expansion. With the last of 120 specially designed
steel structures in place, all the major
civil and mechanical work on the world’s longest
single potline of 1.7 km is complete by
now, and Emal remains on target to deliver
its ambitious expansion plans. The first steel
structure was raised in July last year, which
means that completion was within the anticipated
target of 12 months. The work was done
without a single lost time injury – the industry
standard for measuring success in health and
safety.
Emal’s Phase II expansion project will increase
aluminium production to 1.3m tpy by
the end of 2014, from today’s 800,000 tpy.
Early works on the estimated USD4.5bn
Phase II expansion began in early 2011, making
Emal one of the largest industrial projects
in the UAE outside oil and gas and one of the
key projects leading to the diversification of
the UAE’s economy.
BAHRAIN: Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has
begun a bankable feasibility study to determine
the viability of the expansion of its sixth
potline. The expansion project is expected to
add another 400,000 tpy to the company’s current
capacity of 890,000 tpy. Alba will use Dubal
DX+ technology in the bankable feasibility
study. Dubal currently has five pilot DX+ pots
which began operating at 420 kA and are now
running at 440 kA. DX+ is an updated version
of the DX technology which is in use at Dubal
Ingots from Emal, waiting for shipment
and Emal Phase I plants.
At the end of December 2012, Alba announced
it remains on track in broadening
its production capacity by increasing its line
current of Potline 5 from AP30 to AP36 technology.
The upgrade will enable Alba to boost
output since each 1 kA increase is expected
to yield 950 tpy of extra aluminium production.
The Alba team succeeded in achieving
this goal without any significant capital investment.
Plans are also underway to achieve the
same level of success in Potlines 3 and 4.
In June Alba announced that its process
technology achieved a significant milestone
with the upgrade of Potline 5 to AP37 technology
following an increase in the line current
to 370 kA. The upgrade increases the smelter
capacity by around 10,000 tpy.
➝
© Emal
Primary aluminium smelters in the Middle East:
Nameplate capacities and shutdown capacities on a temporary basis
Compiled by R. P. Pawlek, June 2013
Country
MIDDLE EAST
Location Nameplate
Capacity
(tpy)
Abu Dhabi Taweelah 800,000
Azerbaijan Ganja 50,000
Bahrain Askar 900,000
India Jharsuguda 500,000
Korba 900,000
Renukoot 345,000
Hirakud 213,000
Angul 475,000
Indonesia Kuala Tanjung 265,000
Shutdown
Capacity
(tpy)
Iran Arak 90,000
Arak (2) 110,000
Bandar Abbas 110,000
Bandar Abbas (2) 147,000 100,000
Japan Kambara 20,000
Kazakhstan Pavlodar 250,000
Malaysia Sarawak 120,000 60,000
Oman Sohar 390,000
Qatar Mesaieed 625,000
Tajikistan Regar 450,000 175,000
Turkey Seydisehir 65,000
UAE Jebel Ali 1,040,000
20 ALUMINIUM · 9/2013