A combination of convenient location, extensive product portfolio, existing strong relationships and an established logistic infrastructure places the UAE's primary aluminum manufacturing sector in a strong position to grow its market share in Turkey where the Commodities Research Unit CRU has predicted 20% YoY growth in aluminum consumption to 847,000 tonnes in 2011.
Aiming to leverage this opportunity, Dubai Aluminum Company Limited and Emirates Aluminum Company Limited the UAE's 2 primary aluminum smelters with a combined production capacity of 1.8 million tonnes of hot metal per annum exhibited jointly at ALU EXPO 2011 held in Istanbul from October 13th to 16th 2011.
Mr Nasser Zainal DUBAL's GM Marketing & Sales GCC, Indian Sub continent & Middle East, the DUBAL EMAL exhibition stand successfully promoted the two individual businesses as well as their combined portfolio of premium purity, high quality value added products. The DUBAL EMAL stand also featured DUBAL's in house developed, proprietary DX Reduction Technology that has been implemented at industrial scale at both DUBAL and EMAL and which offers enhanced energy efficiency and productivity levels yet lower environmental emissions than comparative technologies.
Mr Zainal said that DUBAL and EMAL's participation at ALU EXPO 2011 the first time at this forum was indicative of the companies' intentions in the region. Turkey is a very important market for us, having accounted for about 24,000 tonnes in 2010. Moreover, our sales forecast is 37,000 tonnes for this year. In 2012 we're expecting 59% YoY growth in demand for DUBAL EMAL products from our existing customers in Turkey to 59,000 tonnes."
Traditionally, the major share of products exported to Turkey has been foundry alloy, used in automotive parts manufacturing. Our main objective at ALU EXPO 2011 was to raise awareness of our wider portfolio specifically billet for use in construction, industrial, transportation and forging in automotive industries."
Mr Saeed Fadhel Al Mazrooei CEO of EMAL said that "This reflected our ambition to expand DUBAL EMAL's business into Turkey's manufacturing and construction sectors. Judging by the volume of traffic to our stand and enquiries received, our efforts were fruitful."
