Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), expecting an annual average growth in demand of three to four percent for the next five years and greater competition, particularly from China, has declared itself to be on track for an expansion that will be completed in late 2004 or 2005.

The smelter has also announced plans for yet another major expansion by the end of the decade that should make the company a stronger player in the world aluminium market.

The first expansion in the form of the Potline 5 project will raise capacity by 50 per cent to 750,000 tonnes per year (tpy).

Chief executive Bruce Hall said many elements were already in place and expectations were that there would be a significant return from implementing the expansion in line with the company's plans. Alba has signed an agreement with Aluminium Pechiney to utilise its Potline 4 technology for Potline 5.

Hall said the Potline 5 project would make Alba the largest smelter in the world outside of Eastern Europe. A major power station development is running alongside the smelter expansion to ensure that additional power is available to meet the demands of the new potline.

Mott MacDonald has been appointed the engineering and construction manager for the power station.

Alba is 77 per cent owned by Bahrain's government, 20 per cent by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and three percent by German group Breton Investments.

The smelter's first-quarter production was said to be 4,000 tonnes higher than projected and a new product - a foundry ingot catering to the automobile industry - is also doing well.

The Potline 5 project will give way to Potline 6 without much delay. Alba's board of directors has approved a strategic alliance agreement with US-based Alcoa Inc for evaluating the additional capacity of 255,000 tpy. The new capacity level will put the smelter past the million-tonne mark and this could happen by the end of the decade.

The board approved moves to co-operate with Gulf Aluminium Rolling mills (Garmco) in an investigation for mutually beneficial possibilities.

Alba's vision for the period until the decade's end is based on projections of increasing demand and competition.

"We see a slight growth in demand of around 2 per cent this year but, over the next 5 years, a long-term average demand growth rate of 3-4 per cent is expected globally," said Khalid Noor, acting marketing manager.

"On the supply side, more metal from China is expected to be produced and this will offset the Western output which is likely to reduce significantly - particularly in the US due to high energy costs.

"The effect from the increased output in China will lead to increased availability of aluminium in Asia and therefore increased competition for Alba and other suppliers to Asia."

Noor said Alba expected to maintain its competitive edge in such a situation with its well-established service reputation and its broad range of value-added products to meet customers' demands.

Alba, whose product range includes ingots, T-ingots, billets & rolling slab, has maintained the trend of sending most of its exports to the Far East and South-East Asia.

According to Noor, 27 per cent of all sales went to that region in 2001, compared with 29 per cent in the previous year. The GCC accounted for 13 per cent (14 per cent in 2000).

Bahrain accounted for 50 per cent of all sales against 51 per cent in 2000. Other regions were responsible for 10 per cent against 11 per cent in 2000. First-half 2002 figures were about the same as in 2001.

Noor estimated that net production in 2001 was 522,642 tonnes compared with 509,690 metric tonnes in the previous year.

"The main feature last year was the slower demand in the markets of Asia and particularly the US. Although Alba only exports a small percentage of its metal to the US, there was a noticeable and significant downturn in this market compared to 2000 when demand was generally more robust from all regions," observed Noor.

However, the markets in Bahrain and the GCC, have, as always, continued to expand - defying the general global trend."

Commenting on the new product in foundry ingot recently introduced as A356.2 alloy, Noor said:

"This is a significant step for Alba as far as the product mix is concerned and already 12,000 tonnes has been produced this year.

"This quantity will increase in the future to enable Alba to further capitalise on its high-purity metal and to meet the growing demand from the car industry to produce aluminium wheels."

Alba commissioned last year a $400 million coke calcining plant that has made the giant smelter self-sufficient in its coke requirements. The plant, said to be the first of its kind in the Middle East, is contributing to Alba's revenues and has made it a symbol of industrial sophistication.

The coke-calcining plant has come along with a seawater desalination unit and a jetty facility upgrade at the smelter's marine terminal.

The plant is not only meeting Alba's requirements for calcined petroleum coke of around 250,000 tonnes it is making available another 200,000 tonnes for exports.

The desalination plant is designed to augment the country's potable water network by 41,000 cu m per day. The jetty upgrade and raw materials-handling facilities enable vessels laden with 60,000 tonnes of alumina to unload their cargo against a previous maximum of 40,000 tonnes. The upgrade includes the construction of alumina silos, an alumina ship unloader and transport system, a calcined coke ship loader, an additional jetty and utility supplies.

Alba has said the coke-calcining unit has the potential to contribute more than $50 million annually to the economy while providing scores of extra jobs.

The coke-calcining project involved the reclamation of 141,000 sq m of land, increasing by five times the size of the existing marine terminal.

Calcined coke is the key element in the production of carbon anodes. The calcined coke is transported to Alba's carbon plant where it is mixed with coal tar pitch and baked in kilns at 1,250¡C to form carbon anodes.

These anodes are then attached to aluminium rods and delivered to the Reduction Lines where they are used in the electrolytic process for producing aluminium. Alba produces 457,000 anodes each year because, during the process of making aluminium, the anodes are consumed.

Until the calciner was commissioned, Alba imported up to 250,000 tonnes per annum of calcined coke from the US and Argentina. Now, Alba imports green coke, which comes from refineries, for calcining at its marine terminal. This gives two major benefits to Alba: reduced costs and greater control on the quality of the calcined coke for anode manufacture.

Conveyors feed the green coke to the calciner where the volatiles are removed. The two kilns consist of a horizontal rotating steel shell, lined with refractory material. The coke is heated to around 1,300¡C under partial exclusion of oxygen to limit burning of the valuable coke.

The heat generated is utilised by waste heat boilers to produce steam for the seawater desalination plant, which provides water directly to the water distribution network.

Alba has generated a flourishing downstream aluminium industry. The first company in this category was Bahrain Atomisers, established in 1972. Others to follow suit were Balexco (Bahrain Aluminium Extrusion Company), Midal Cables, Garmco, Aluwheel and Bamco (Bahrain Alloys Manufacturing Company).

Alba recently announced it had clocked 1.5 million manhours without a lost-time accident (LTA).

"Several departments have also achieved safety milestones, including power maintenance (one million man-hours without an LTA), carbon (750,000 man-hours without an LTA), maintenance services (500,000 man-hours without an LTA), and the casthouse (500,000 man-hours without an LTA)," Hall said.

The official revealed that the number of current LTAs at the plant had dropped to two, compared to four for the same time last year. "All of our managers and many other employees have now been trained to carry out safety observations throughout the plant," he said.

"We continue to discuss ways we can improve safety in the workplace through our actions and behaviour."

Completed recently was the conversion of kiln 2 in the carbon department for improved environmental performance. The conversion was aimed at bringing about substantial savings through lower energy, carbon and packing-coke consumption.

"Significantly, this major construction project has been carried out without any injuries to employees or contractors," Hall said.

Among the highlights of the last two years was the opening of the Technical Services Centre, a purpose-built facility that houses the environment, metallurgy and laboratory departments as well as R&D.

The centre was equipped with the first scanning electron microscope in Bahrain for examining failures and fractures in metals and refractories, the ICP (inductively coupled plasma) testing of solutions to provide accuracy to parts per billion of impurities and trace elements in raw material, wastes and effluents, and refractory equipment to test the physical properties and performance of kilns, pots, furnaces and launder linings.

The centre also carries out the maintenance of all ISO9002 and ISO14001 activities.

The company pointed out that the implementation of a plant-wide solutions software system, which integrated all aspects of its operations, was also a first for any major company in the country.

Alba also lays claim to being among the most environmentally friendly smelters, having invested several hundred million dollars on green projects including upgrading of its older reduction lines with lean technology and commissioning of seven high-performance fume-treatment plants.

Alba was presented in 2001 with the United Nations Environment Programme Award. In the same year it won a Gulf-wide award for the best environmental activities by an industrial establishment. The prize came from the GCC environment ministers.