Reuters reported that Emirates Aluminum’s plans to become the world’s largest single aluminium smelter is on track while it has secured deals to export the additional production globally, Production from the Phase I of the USD 5.7 billion project is expected to start by the end of the year and will reach full capacity of 700,000 tonnes of aluminum per year by December 2010.

Mr Ducan Hedditch CEO of Emal said that “We have reached the final stages of construction and we will gradually start ramping up production until it reaches full capacity by the end of 2010.”

Emal is a 50-50 JV between Dubai Aluminum Company Limited and Mubadala Development Company. Emal is expected to be the world’s largest single site aluminum smelter complex with this project. The Phase I of the project located at Al Taweelah in Abu Dhabi will have a capacity of more than 2,000 MW of electricity. The Phase II will increase capacity to 1.4 million tonnes of aluminum per year and is expected to be completed in 2013 to 2014.

Mr Hedditch said that the aluminium produced will be sold in the domestic market and exported to countries within the region, Europe and Asia. He said that “We already signed a number of contracts to export to countries in the region and Europe and at a later stage we plan to export to North America.”

He added that the UAE’s local demand is around 250,000 tonnes per year. He said that “I’m not worried about building inventory levels because we are looking at this project on the long term and I believe that global demand will pick up again.”

The company said in a statement that once the company moves into the operational phase, Mr Saeed Al Mazooei a member of its technical and tender review committee will become the new chief executive while Mr Hedditch will have an advisory role.

(Sourced from Reuters)