Emirates Global Aluminium, a leading aluminium producer, on Monday announced the world’s first bauxite cargo shipment using a liquefied natural gas-fuelled vessel.

The shipment, in a Capesize ship, is carrying bauxite mined by EGA subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation to a customer in China.

LNG-fuelled ships can achieve up to 28 per cent lower greenhouse gas emissions on a tank-to-wake basis compared to vessels using traditional marine bunker fuel, according to SEA-LNG, a multi-sector industry coalition. The global shipping industry as a whole was responsible for over two per cent of the word’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency.

The bauxite shipment is onboard the Ubuntu Empathy, an LNG dual-fuelled vessel operated by Anglo American and chartered by EGA. The vessel is one of Anglo American’s 10-strong chartered fleet of lower emission LNG dual-fuelled vessels.

Capesize vessels are amongst the largest bulk cargo carriers in the world, and are up to 300 metres long – the length of two football fields – and 50 metres wide. Capesize vessels can carry around 180 thousand tonnes of bauxite ore.

EGA predominantly uses Capesize vessels to ship bauxite ore from the Republic of Guinea to the company’s alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi and to third-party customers around the world. Last year, EGA exported some 14.1 million wet metric tonnes of bauxite from Guinea.

Bauxite is the ore from which aluminium is derived.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “Aluminium plays an essential role in decarbonisation economy-wide. It is also important how sustainably aluminium is produced, and this includes the transportation around the world of millions of tonnes of raw materials. Our approach to decarbonisation is comprehensive and extends beyond our operations to include everything from supply chain to financing. LNG-fuelled cargos are one way for us to reduce our emissions, and we are proud to pioneer this fuel for shipping bauxite. Our goal is to reach net zero by 2050, including from our supply chain, and help meet the increasing global demand for the low carbon aluminium.”

EGA’s bauxite mining subsidiary GAC makes EGA one of the biggest merchant bauxite suppliers in the world. GAC began production in 2019.

EGA was the first aluminium producer and the first Middle East company to join global shipping and maritime sustainability initiative, the Sea Cargo Charter, in 2023.

In 2022, EGA signed an agreement with one of its shipping partners, “K” Line to develop and implement new marine decarbonisation technologies suitable for EGA’s bulk cargo shipping routes in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean. 

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