State-owned Emirates Aluminium (Emal) plans to ramp up output at a giant new aluminium plant to more than 700,000 tonnes by the end of 2010, Emal’s chief executive has said.

The UAE firm is building what would eventually be the largest single aluminium plant in the world with a capacity of 1.4 million tonnes, expected to come fully online in 2013-2014.
The first phase was due to start early next year, Duncan Hedditch told Reuters Television from Abu Dhabi.
“We’re going to come on a little bit in excess of 700,000 tonnes,” Hedditch said. “We’re on track to start early next year and we’ll ramp up to full production sometime by the end of 2010.”    
Emal is a joint venture between state-owned Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) and Mubadala Development Company. Mubadala is an investment vehicle owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, which produces most of the UAE’s oil. The UAE is the world’s third-largest oil exporter.

Competitive
Access to cheap energy would help Emal to be competitive, Hedditch said. Emal was proceeding with expansion even after other global aluminium producers have had to cut output due to the impact of the slowing economy on demand.
“We’re in fairly good shape, we’ll be coming on as a low-cost producer,” Hedditch said. “Aluminium smelting is really about turning electricity into aluminium. So if you’ve got a sustainable, strong position in energy then there’s often a good opportunity in aluminium and that’s the case here.”   
Emal already has a couple of early sales deals in place and has had interest from potential buyers in Asia and Europe and from sectors including packaging, transportation and construction, Hedditch said.