United Arab Emirates, 31 March 2022: Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, and PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (INALUM), today signed a Memorandum of Understanding that could lead to the licencing of EGA’s UAE-developed smelting technology for a brownfield aluminium smelter expansion in Indonesia.

His Excellency Husin Bagis, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the UAE, His Excellency Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, EGA Vice Chairman, and Musabbeh Al Kaabi, EGA Board member witnessed the signing at the Indonesia pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. The agreement was signed by EGA’s Chief Executive Officer Abdulnasser Bin Kalban and INALUM’s President Director Hendi Prio Santoso.

Under the agreement, EGA and INALUM will engage in a feasibility study of the use of EGA’s technology in a planned, up to 400,000 tonnes per year expansion of INALUM’s Kuala Tanjung smelter in North Sumatra.

EGA will also explore the potential to invest in the expansion and off-take metal, should it be developed with renewable energy. The existing aluminium smelter at Kuala Tanjung uses electricity generated with hydropower. The companies will also explore further cooperation opportunities throughout the aluminium value chain.

EGA and INALUM are already working together on the potential upgrade using EGA technological know-how of the existing aluminium smelter at Kuala Tanjung, under an agreement signed in 2020. The project aims to boost production from the existing reduction cells by around 20,000 tonnes per year or approximately 10 per cent. Design work for a pilot section of the project has been completed. EGA has completed a series of similar upgrades across its sites in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah over recent decades.

EGA and INALUM are also together exploring the potential of developing a greenfield aluminium smelter in Indonesia using EGA’s technology.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “This agreement further deepens our cooperation with INALUM, which is based on the potential use of EGA’s technology in a number of development projects in Indonesia. Our aim is to grow our position as the technology provider of choice in our industry, developing revenue streams for EGA from technology licensing and potentially further opportunities, while strengthening the relationship between our two countries.”

Hendi Prio Santoso, President Director of INALUM, said: “We are pleased with the progress of our relationship with EGA, which we are confident will lead to the application of EGA’s leading smelting technology in Indonesia. We look forward to further milestones in this brownfield expansion and our other projects in the near future.”

EGA has developed its own aluminium smelting technology in the UAE for more than 25 years. EGA has used its own technology in every smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines.

In 2016, EGA became the first UAE industrial company to license its core process technology internationally, in a deal with Aluminium Bahrain (ALBA). ALBA’s Potline 6, built using EGA’s DX+ Ultra technology, began production in 2018.

In 2020, EGA signed an agreement with NEO Aluminio Colombia which could lead to the export of EGA technology for the development of the South American country’s first aluminium production facility.