Emirates Business 24|7 reported that the Emirates Aluminium Company is pushing ahead with the construction of the world’s largest single site smelter despite the global financial distress and a decline in aluminium prices.

Mr Duncan Hedditch CEO of Emal said that Abu Dhabi based company would start production in 2010 and it has already struck some business deals with clients.

Mr Hedditch said that “When you prepare to put together an investment of this scale you create a business plan with a very long term view of costs, revenues and markets. And it is important that it makes sense over the long term.”

He said that “So although the markets are not as good as they were last year, it is in many respects irrelevant to us now. Especially taking into account that we are not currently in production then it is truly irrelevant in terms of revenue. In short, the question should be does your business plan still hold up in the current climate? The answer to this is ‘yes it does’ and the recent downturn has not affected our plans going forward.”

Mr Hedditch said that lower aluminium prices had not affected Emal’s strategy. The company views 2010 as a “small production year” as it is the 5 year of production and full capacity will be reached at the end of 2010. He said that “However, we have already seen significant interest from customers that we would like to work with. In fact, we have actually done some business already in terms of long term business with customers that we are very pleased to have on our books.”
Emal was established in 2007 as a JV between Dubai’s Dubal Aluminium Company and the Abu Dhabi based Mubadala Development Company. The USD 5.7 billion project is the world’s largest green field aluminium smelter and the biggest non-oil industrial venture in the UAE.

The Phase I of the Emal project will be operational in 2010 with about 700,000 tonnes annual capacity. Upon completion of all phases, the smelter will have an output capacity of nearly1.4 million tonnes.

(Sourced from Emirates Business 24|7)