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Excerpts from Middle East Aluminium 2012
Takamul aims to increase Oman aluminium investments
Oman’s Takamul Investment Company plans to expand its portfolio of downstream aluminium investments in Oman and is considering projects in aluminium packaging and aluminium construction materials, the MEED Middle East Aluminium 2012 Conference was told today.
Takamul has invested in Oman Aluminium Processing Industries LLC, which makes aluminium conductors, and is developing the 140,000 tonne-a-year Oman Aluminium Rolling Company. Both are located in the Sohar industrial estate adjacent to the 380,000 tonne-a-year Sohar Aluminium smelter
“The aluminium conductor plant was built to serve the electricity market,” Takamul senior business development advisor P R Ramakrishnan said. “We continue to see a large opportunity here and for expansion.”
“We believe packaging and construction will form an important part of the future and aluminium products used in transport projects,” Ramakrishnan said. He said that feasibility studies are under way into the possibility of building aluminium extrusion and die-casting manufacturing units. Initial consideration has begun of factories that might produce aluminium cable, foil and coated sheets.
Ramakrishnan said that a steel wire manufacturing plant is under construction in the Sohar industrial estate. He said its output could be used as reinforcement in electrical cables.
Ramakrishnan said that Oman could play a significant role in the global automotive component industry. “We see Duqm and Salalah as potentially part of the automobile supply chain,” he said. “We have seen interest among car manufacturers in using Oman as a hub.”
Maaden-Alcoa aluminium joint venture to produce flat products for car industry
The Ma’aden-Alcoa aluminium joint venture in Saudi Arabia said today that the 380,000 tonne-a-year rolling mill to be completed in Ras al-Khair in August 2013 will produce flat products for the automotive industry.
The announcement that the output of the rolling mill will target the car industry is one of the first initiatives associated with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Automotive Cluster programme being implemented by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
Alcoa commercial vice president Anthony Farraj told the MEED Middle East Aluminium 2012 conference in Dubai that the Ras al-Khair smelter will have the capacity to produce 100,000 tonnes a year of flat products for the automotive and other industries. He said that this would involve increasing the total investment in the Ma’aden-Alcoa aluminium joint venture to $13 billion.
The joint venture has been created to develop a bauxite mine a Al-Baitha with capacity of 4 million tonnes a year; a 1.8 million tonne-a-year alumina refinery; a 740,000 tonne-a-year smelter and the rolling mill. Farraj said that the smelter and rolling mill are scheduled to start operations at the same time. The mine and the refinery are due to start operating in 2014.
The joint venture is between the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) and Alcoa of the US, the world’s largest aluminium producer. The bauxite will be delivered to Ras al-Khair through the north-south railway, the first phase of which was completed in 2011 by SAR, the Saudi Arabian railway company.
Farraj said that the rolling mill’s main market will be the kingdom’s canning industry. Saudi Arabia has more than half of the canning plants in the Middle East.
MEED conference told that aluminium price to hold steady in 2012
CRU Group head of aluminium primary and products Marco Georgiou told the MEED Middle East Aluminium 2012 Conference today that the aluminium price will hold close to last year’s average levels in 2012.
“In quarter one of 2012, there was a world supply surplus, but as you go into quarter two we expect to see a deficit with a slight rise in the aluminium price,” Georgiou said. He said that he forecast that the aluminum price will be about $2,350 for the year as a whole compared with about $2,400 in 2011. It will be in the range of $2,450-2,500 a tonne in 2013.
“The overall message is that you have two very strong price limits; one on downside of about $1,900 a tonne and one on the upside of about $2,600 a tonne,” Georgiou said.
Gulf Aluminium Council works with European lobby group about EU tariffs
The Gulf Aluminium Council (GAC), the regional industry trade association, is building links with the Federation of Aluminium Consumers in Europe (FACE) as part of its campaign to lobby for lower tariffs on GCC aluminium exports to the EU, the MEED Middle East Aluminium 2012 Conference was told this morning.
“FACE represents independent downstream firms,” GAC general secretary Mahmood Daylami said. “The main reason why we built this affiliation is because they are advocates of the removal of the tariff on aluminium on products from the Gulf.”
Daylami said that tariffs on aluminium exports to the EU will be covered by the EU-GCC free trade agreement which has been under negotiation for more than 20 years.
“The EU is an attractive market, but it is losing its production capacity,” Daylami said. “The question for Europe is: where is it going to get aluminium from in five or ten year’s time? The market in Europe needs Gulf aluminium. The question is whether the Gulf will need Europe”
“The answer is yes,” Daylami said.
The GAC was created in 2010 by the aluminium smelters of the GCC. It is based in Dubai.
Qatar plans joint venture carbon fibre make to serve car industry
Qatar is close to launching its first major project as part of a plan to develop large-scale automotive manufacturing in Qatar, the MEED Middle East Aluminium 2012 Conference was told this morning.
Chief executive officer of Qatar Automotive Gateway Ahmed Sorour said that the company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Prodrive of the UK to set up a joint venture world-scale carbon composite manufacturing plant.
Sorour said that the Qatar is pressing ahead with a major automotive industry initiative. “Our objective is to manufacture components and not assemble cars,” Sorour said. “Our intention is to establish an automotive cluster and we have identified two sectors. One is lightweight materials like carbon fibre. And the other is lithium-ion battery materials.”
Surour said that Qatar Holding’s investment in the VW Group and Porsche will help facilitate automotive component manufacture in Qatar.
Balexco to raise capacity to 35,000 tonnes
The Bahrain Aluminium Extrusion Company (Balexco), the GCC’s oldest aluminium extruder, is investing to lift production capacity to 33,000-35,000 tonnes a year in 2013 from about 28,000 tonnes a year at present, Balexco chief executive officer Jassim Seyadi told the MEED Middle East Aluminium 2012 Conference this morning.
The company is also introducing new product lines and services.
Seyadi said that GCC aluminium extruders were engaging in damaging competition with each other. “We have enough demand in the GCC to support all the main extruders,” Seyadi said. There was practically no co-ordination of plans among regional extruders he said.
Seyadi said that the GCC aluminium extrusion market is suffering because of the lack of quality control. “There are many small extruders and their quality is rubbish. There is no control of quality in the market.”
Balexco was the recipient of the annual MEED Middle East Aluminium Leadership Award together with the Garmco and Midal Cables.
Garmco aims to double production capacity, build aluminium recycling plant
The Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mill Company (Garmco), the GCC’s sole large-scale aluminium rolling mill, aims to increase annual production capacity to 400,000 tonne a year in five years from about 200,000 tonnes at present, Garmco chief executive officer Adel Hamad told the MEED Middle East Aluminium 2012 Conference this morning.
Hamad also said that Garmco is investigating the possibility of building a 100,000 tonne a year aluminium recycling plant in Bahrain. It will serve the local and regional market, he said.
Garmco was the recipient of the annual MEED Middle East Aluminium Leadership Award together with the Bahrain Aluminium Extrusion Company (Balexco) and Midal Cables.
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