EGA highlights UAE aluminium's important role in EU car industry at major German trade event

Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, has highlighted the important role of UAE-made aluminium in the European automotive industry at a major trade event in Germany.

EGA supplies metal directly to two world-renowned European carmakers as well as to more than 15 of the most important parts makers in the European automotive industry’s supply chain.

Europe is a major market for EGA’s aluminium, accounting for approximately a quarter of the company’s worldwide sales. About one-third of EGA’s supplies to Europe are to the continent’s automotive sector.

EGA is participating this week in GIFA, a forum that takes place every four years in the German city of Düsseldorf.

Raid Mallala, EGA’s Senior Director of Marketing and Sales in Europe and America, said: “EGA has supplied aluminium to Europe since the start of production at our Jebel Ali smelter in 1979, and today we meet more than 10 per cent of Western Europe’s primary aluminium needs. We are proud to be a particularly important supplier to Europe’s car industry. With our direct sales to car companies and parts makers in their supply chain, we believe that almost all major European car manufacturers are today using UAE-made aluminium in their vehicles.”

Aluminium is increasingly used in vehicles because it is strong but lightweight, contributing to fuel efficiency. Industry experts estimate that by 2025, the average car could contain 250 kilogrammes of the metal.

EGA is one of the largest suppliers of foundry alloys to the automotive industry worldwide and is certified to IATF 16949:2016, the latest global standard established by the automotive industry which aims to ensure even more rigorous quality management in the global automotive supply chain.

Last year EGA was named “Global Supplier of the Year” by Maxion Wheels, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of wheels for cars, trucks and other vehicles. EGA has been supplying Maxion Wheels, which are used by almost every major vehicle brand, with aluminium since 1995.

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Contacts at EGA:
Simon Buerk
sbuerk@ega.ae
056 3111 536
Fatima Al Mutawa
falmutawa@ega.ae
050 327 7545

About EGA
Emirates Global Aluminium is equally-owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai.

It is the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry, and the largest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.

EGA’s aluminium is the second largest made-in-the UAE export after oil and gas. In 2018, EGA produced 2.6 million tonnes of cast metal. EGA is the only UAE producer and makes the UAE the fifth largest aluminium producing nation in the world.

EGA has more than 350 customers in over 60 countries. Over 80 per cent of EGA’s production is value added products, one of the highest proportions of any aluminium company in the world.

EGA’s aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, packaging, aerospace and electronics industries.

Over 10 per cent of EGA’s production is sold in the UAE to around 26 downstream aluminium companies that make products with EGA’s aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the UAE supports 60,950 jobs.

EGA itself employs over 7,000 of these people including almost 1,200 UAE Nationals.

EGA has focused on technology development for over 25 years. EGA has used its own technology for every smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines. In 2016 EGA became the first UAE industrial company to licence its core industrial process technology internationally.

As a corporate citizen of the UAE, Emirates Global Aluminium aspires in all its operations to be measured amongst the world’s leading metals and mining companies in meeting its environmental and social responsibilities.

In 2017, EGA became the first Middle East headquartered company to join the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, a global programme to foster greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminium industry.

EGA was formed in 2014 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium.

DUBAL’s Jebel Ali aluminium smelter began production in 1979. At almost five square kilometres, EGA’s Jebel Ali site is five times bigger than Dubai Mall.

EMAL started production in 2009 and its Al Taweelah aluminium smelter was the largest single-site aluminium smelter in the world when completed. EGA’s Al Taweelah site is five times bigger than Al Maryah Island at six square kilometres.

EGA has its own power stations at both sites, producing electricity to meet its needs. EGA’s electricity generation capacity is 5,450 megawatts, making EGA the third largest electricity generator in the UAE after the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority.

EGA also produces water through desalination units at its power plants.

Today EGA is expanding upstream and internationally to secure the natural resources the UAE’s aluminium industry needs and create new revenue streams.

EGA’s wholly-owned subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation is building a bauxite mine and associated export infrastructure in the Republic of Guinea in West Africa, in one of the largest greenfield investments in that country in over 40 years.

In the UAE, EGA has built the country’s first alumina refinery at Al Taweelah. The project reduces the UAE’s dependence on imported alumina and will supply 40 per cent of EGA’s needs once fully ramped-up.

For more information on EGA please visit www.ega.ae.  

© Press Release 2019