United Arab Emirates, 01 November 2022: Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, welcomed His Excellency Sameh Al Qubaisi, Director General of Economic Affairs at Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development to the company’s Al Taweelah site in Abu Dhabi.

Abdulla Kalban, EGA’s Managing Director, and Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, EGA’s Chief Executive Officer, received His Excellency and ADDED’s delegation at EGA. During the visit, the delegation was briefed on EGA’s industrial activities in Abu Dhabi and its work to further localise the company’s supply chain and further improve Emiratisation.

His Highness Sheikh Khaled Bin Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office, recently launched the Abu Dhabi Industrial Strategy to strengthen Abu Dhabi’s position as the region’s most competitive industrial hub. The Abu Dhabi Government is investing AED 10 billion in transformational programmes to more than double the size of the manufacturing sector to AED 172 billion, creating 13,600 jobs for skilled workers, and contributing to increasing Abu Dhabi’s non-oil exports by 143 per cent to AED 178.8 billion by 2031.

EGA’s aluminium production at Al Taweelah began in 2009, with a second phase of the smelter started-up in 2013. EGA has developed an alumina refinery on the site, which began production in 2019 and was a new industrial activity for the UAE.

EGA is the hub of a broader aluminium cluster within Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi and supplies nearby by customers with liquid metal via a dedicated hot metal road.

His Excellency Sameh Al Qubaisi, Director General of Economic Affairs at ADDED, said: “To achieve the ambitious goals of the Abu Dhabi Industrial Strategy, we focus on working closely with major manufacturers that are contributing positively to creating new jobs, increasing non-oil GDP and exports. We are proud of the role played by our national economic champions, like Emirates Global Aluminium, in developing the industrial sector. This visit allowed us to be briefed about the latest developments in EGA’s facilities and discuss ways to further strengthen cooperation to achieve sustainable economic development”.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “It was a pleasure to welcome His Excellency and his delegation from the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development to Al Taweelah, which is amongst the largest industrial sites in the Emirate outside oil and gas. EGA has been a pioneer of economic diversification for decades, and we fully support the Abu Dhabi Industrial Strategy to grow the industrial sector further. We see opportunities for new manufacturing to develop both in our supply chain and using our metal.”

Nationally, the broader aluminium sector with EGA at its heart generates over AED 18 billion annually in the economy. For every AED 1 of GDP generated in the aluminium sector, a further AED 1.26 is generated elsewhere in the UAE economy. EGA has a bold aspiration to double its absolute contribution to the economies of the countries in which it operates by 2040, and steadily improve the quality of its contribution.