October 2012 Issue - Gulf Aluminium Council

INTERVIEWModar Al MekdadGeneral Manager, Gulf Extrusions Co LLCWhat is the progress with Abu Dhabi Plant?We are at the final stage of freezing the technicalspecification of the plant and we are expecting tostart with the civil works by end of the year so thatthe production will take place in 2014.What is your future plan, regionally andinternationally, with special reference to newproduct, if any?Aluminium extrusion industry has many applicationsand in GCC demands are mainly for architecturalapplications. At Gulf Extrusions we are diversifyingour product range to include automotive andindustrial applications, with the aim to encouragethe industrial stakeholders to setup business inGCC countries because of the incentives andbenefits the region offers to investors. For thesame reason we also setup Refco Metals whichspecializes in machining aluminium extrudedprofiles for automotive sector. Besides our project inAbu Dhabi, we are also setting up Surface Treatmentfacility plant in Qatar, and also opening new officesin India, U.K. and Holland.We are also introducing a new product called GreenAluminium (commercial name is X-ECO) with carbonfootprint lower than primary aluminium and hasover 80% post consumed recycled content.There is also a new series of architectural systemswhich will be shown in the upcoming Aluminium2012 Exhibition in Dusseldorf, Germany.Where is your target market?Gulf Extrusions is supplying extruded profiles toalmost four continents i.e. Europe, Africa, Asia, USand Canada. Our target is to diversify our marketpresence in order to minimize the impact and dropin demand from certain markets.We have too many extruders in the Gulf? Morethan what the Gulf needs.Due to the construction boom that took place inthe UAE from 2003 to 2008, many investors wereunder the impression that the demand for extrusionswill continue. Moreover, there was no accurateinformation about supply and demand of extrusiondue to the absence of any official statistics that theconstruction industry can rely on.The installed capacity in the UAE has doubled byalmost 1½ times more than the actual demand andalmost all extruders in the UAE are trying to enter newmarkets outside the region to keep the plant running.Another factor is that all new extruders were notattracting special markets or products. It was justa copy of each other and this was one of the mainreasons Gulf Extrusions diversified its product rangeto cover wider range of industries. As a result, weare in a better position today.What are your challenges, locally or internationally?o On the local level, support for the industrialsector needs to be enhanced especially with theincrease in the cost of production due to increasein cost of utilities.o Absence of local/regional specifications andstandards for aluminium extrusions will allowinferior aluminium to flow into the region withoutany regulations.o On the international level, we are still facinglong pending issues on import duties applied foraluminium products produced in GCC countries aswell as in India and some of the African countries.We believe that once FTA (Free Trade Agreement)is signed between GCC and these countries, thiswill allow more aluminium to flow into this region.Tim Murray isappointed as CEOof Alba effective 1stOctober 2012,Tim succeedsLaurent Schmitt.