Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has announced plans to raise its production capacity from 870,000 tonnes per year to 1.2 million tonnes.

As a first step in that direction, there will be an inhouse expansion of 10 to 15 per cent at a cost of $100 million, said chairman Mahmood Al Kooheji.

The company was considering replacing Potlines 1 and 2, which were not efficient, with Potline 6 and studies were focusing on that aspect and on factors that could make another expansion as cost-effective as possible.
About Potline 6, Al Kooheji said Alba was now looking at the electricity option rather than depend on gas for any future expansion.

The GCC power grid had thrown up "big opportunities" making it possible to reduce gas requirements significantly. "We might even need just electricity and not gas," he said.

Kooheji also said Alba had not given up on taking stakes in companies operating in the raw materials field including mining. It was examining opportunities as they came.

Al Kooheji said the company planned to expand its market base and explore business opportunities in emerging markets such as China and India.

"Our expansion plans involve increasing our production to levels that take into consideration the maximum size for the Alba smelter, both logistically and environmentally and to ensure optimum productivity," he said.

The smelter produces a range of products including standard and T-ingots, extrusion billets, rolling slab, propertzi ingots and molten aluminium. Around 45 per cent of the output is supplied to Bahrain's downstream industry.

Restructuring

Alba has embarked on a major restructuring which it says will save millions of dollars annually while enhancing productivity, sales and profitability.

The restructuring took effect in late September.

Under the restructuring, the company has dispensed with general managers, reduced executive staff and reassigned fewer managers giving them additional responsibilities. The company will also gradually reduce reliance on contractors and use its own staff where possible. Training would be geared towards equipping Bahrainis with skills to perform tasks contractors" workforces now undertook.

Twenty five per cent of workers at Alba are contractors" employees.

The smelter now has five executive officers against 11 previously and 27 managers against 36. Overall the senior staff strength has dipped to 32 from 47.

Chief executive officer Ahmed Saleh Al Noaimi retired after serving the company for 35 years.

Al Kooheji, praising him as one of the key figures in Alba's development, said: "Al Noaimi's national experience helped Alba earn international recognition. He contributed towards making Alba the home of the world's longest reduction line by developing a financing plan for Potline 5.

"He also played a key role in opening new markets in the Far East and in other major developments within the company in which he provided his input."

 Al Kooheji observed that Alba's national workforce had enabled the company to be recognised as one of the most modern aluminium smelters in the world and a major contributor to the national economy. "This expertise has been a matter of great pride for the country since the company's Bahraini employees have proved their skills and capabilities in every position," he said.

A high level of expertise, visionary leadership and outstanding efficiency is required in a smelter like Alba where 90 per cent of the workforce is Bahraini and its output supports Bahrain's downstream industries, he added.
Al Noaimi said that he valued the trust that the chairman and board of directors had placed in him during his tenure as chief executive.

A qualified chartered management accountant from the UK, he attended the Management Development Programme at the Harvard Business School and received a Master's degree in management science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.