EGA of the United Arab Emirates stated on Wednesday that the outlook for the aluminum market is positive. The company pointed out that the reason is the opportunity brought about by China's production capacity cap, as well as the rising copper prices which have led some manufacturers to switch to using aluminum.
The CEO of EGA, Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, said in an interview: "The global demand for aluminium is increasing... and it is slightly shifting from copper to aluminium." He predicted that demand would exceed supply and that there would be a lack of new aluminium production facilities worldwide.
EGA is jointly owned by Mubadala of Abu Dhabi and the Dubai sovereign wealth fund ICD. It plans to build the first primary aluminum plant in the United States in nearly 50 years.
Chief Financial Officer Pal Kildemo stated that due to the company's plan to adopt the EX technology that is currently being tested in its factory in the United Arab Emirates, the total investment for the smelting plant to be built in Oklahoma, USA, has increased from the previous $4 billion to between $5 billion and $6 billion.
According to an agreement announced last month, Century Aluminium will hold 40% of the shares in this project, while Emirates Global Aluminium will hold the remaining 60%. The planned production capacity of this project has been increased to 750,000 tons of aluminium per year.
Kildemo said: "The 60:40 equity ratio will be fully reflected in future equity contributions."
Although EGA announced on Wednesday that its core profit last year increased by 7% due to the growth in sales, the company suffered a loss of 765 million US dollars in Guinea as it withdrew the aluminum ore concession of its local subsidiary GAC. Emirates Global Aluminium opposed this decision. Bin Kalban said that negotiations with the Guinean authorities were still ongoing, but no further details were disclosed.
The Emirates Global Aluminium stated that the alternative bauxite supply agreements signed after the license was revoked, including those from Australia and Ghana, have helped meet over 70% of the supply demand.
"We have a global supply strategy, so we have multiple supply sources instead of relying solely on Guinea as we did before," said Bin Kalban. He also stated that its refinery located in the United Arab Emirates has been renovated and is now capable of accepting any type of bauxite.
