United Arab Emirates, 20 May 2022: A delegation from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, led by Director General, Salem Al Marri, visited Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside of oil and gas, to explore potential collaboration in research and the use of EGA’s UAE-made aluminium in space.

The Director General of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, Salem Al Marri, was received at EGA’s Jebel Ali site in Dubai by Chief Executive Officer Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, and the company’s leading technologists. During the visit, the delegation toured EGA’s state-of-the-art research and development facilities, Casthouse and laboratories.

The two parties discussed potential future synergies including the use of EGA metal by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in the construction of its next spacecraft, the sharing of laboratory capabilities, high-end machinery and fabrication facilities, and material sourcing.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “We look forward to close cooperation with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre as the UAE’s aluminium industry contributes to our nation’s space ambitions. Aluminium is lightweight, strong, and infinitely recyclable, and has been a key material in the aerospace sector since the dawn of flight. I look forward to EGA’s UAE-made low carbon metal leaving our planet as part of UAE-made spacecraft.”

Salem Al Marri, Director General of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, said: “I am thankful for the opportunity to visit one of the UAE’s most innovative industrial companies. Through EGA, the UAE is a major global producer of aluminium, a metal essential for the exploration of space. We look forward to potential future opportunities of collaboration with EGA, and to preparing new generations of Emirati engineers, experts, and researchers on the future strategic, sustainable, and scientific achievements of the UAE’s space sector.”

Since the launch of the first satellite in 1957, aluminium has been the leading material in spaceflight. Given the attributes of aluminium alloys to function under extreme stress, pressure and low temperatures, aluminium’s role as the metal of choice for spacecraft and their components remains second to none.

EGA and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre have conducted respective visits to one another’s facilities and have worked closely together in hosting a series of webinar talks focusing on the role of innovation in space exploration and the aluminium industry.

For the decades ahead, EGA’s aim is to be a technology pathfinder for the global aluminium industry including in the adoption of Industry 4.0, expand the company’s position as technology supplier of choice, and establish a thriving manufacturing innovation ecosystem in the UAE.

EGA works on innovative projects with customers and academics to develop new alloys and enable better understanding of the mechanical properties of existing alloys.

EGA is one of the UAE’s most innovative companies and has developed its own aluminium smelting technology in the UAE for more than 25 years. EGA’s latest technology, DX+ Ultra, is amongst the most efficient in the global aluminium industry. The company has used its own technology in all its smelter expansions since the 1990s has retrofitted all its older production lines and was the first UAE industrial company to license its core process technology internationally.