The Dubai-based Darvesh Group is setting up a Dh3 billion ($816 million) aluminium processing project at the Dubai Industrial City.

The plant will have a capacity of 135,000 tonnes per year when fully completed in 2010, according to Darvesh Group director Ahsan Hassan Darvesh.
Called Noval, the plant will source raw aluminium from Gulf-based companies such as Dubal and Alba and make finished goods for the construction and packaging industries.
The company hopes to be able to source the metal at competitive prices as the region will produce 10 per cent of the world’s aluminium when new smelters come onstream in the UAE, Oman and Qatar.
“Noval will be the world’s largest plant in aluminium- processing capacity. Due to manufacturing growth in the region we see big demand for packaging materials,” Darvesh says.
He says the aluminium processing plant will be the first of its kind in the UAE. The plant will process aluminium ingots sourced from major regional smelters and manufacture end-user products including foil for a wide range of applications.
Noval will produce sheets for aluminium composite panels used in construction, pharmaceutical packaging material, home foils, semi-rigid containers for food packaging and lamination foils.
The company has acquired land of 1 million sq ft in Dubai Industrial City for the plant.
The project will be executed in three phases. The first phase of the plant, which will have a capacity of 30,000 tonnes, will be commissioned in the first quarter of 2008. Work on the project will commence in June this year.
The second phase of the project will boost capacity by 45,000 tonnes. When the 60,000-tonne third phase is completed by 2010, the Nova plant will emerge as the largest aluminium processing facility in the world. Currently in the Gulf, Bahrain has an aluminium processing plant with a capacity of 20,000 tonnes.
The company recently signed an exclusive technology contract for the project with Germany’s Achenbach.
The new processing facility is another example of the initiative taken by the UAE Government to diversify its sources of income away from oil. The country has one of the world’s largest smelters, Dubal, and another one, Emal, is in the construction phase in Abu Dhabi. Also in recent years, the UAE has made great progress in investing in overseas businesses. 
The new company is part of Nova Industries which has another manufacturing unit for producing paper cores, stretch film, blown film, shrink film, adhesive tapes and cast polyfilm.