The award recognises EGA’s role in transforming industries through advanced digital capabilities, homegrown technology, and Industry 4.0 applications to enhance efficiency and sustainability.

EGA launched its digital transformation in 2021 to further increase its competitiveness, agility and flexibility, as well as enhance safety and sustainability. EGA’s Industry 4.0 programme has delivered some $120 million in financial impact through the implementation of more than 80 Industry 4.0 use cases, ranging from using artificial intelligence vision to quality check carbon anode production in real-time, to predictive tools for market movements in key commodities.

EGA has developed its own aluminium smelting technology in the UAE for more than 30 years. EGA’s technology development, and earlier work since 1980, has reduced the amount of electricity required to make each tonne of aluminium by 37.5 per cent.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “Technology development and digital transformation are central to achieving industrial excellence. At EGA, we are focused on creating value through innovation, embedding advanced capabilities across our operations, and building a more sustainable and globally competitive business.”

EGA is trialling its next-generation EX smelting technology in Al Taweelah and began production in 10 pilot reduction cells. EX delivers higher output with lower energy use and emissions, integrating Industry 4.0 capabilities and AI-driven analytics.

The visit is part of EGA’s FURSA platform, developed by the EGA Youth Council and the company’s Learning and Development team to provide youth access to curated courses and experiences to enhance skills in leadership, Industry 4.0, sustainability, science and technology.

EGA youth engaged with leading technology companies in Silicon Valley, including Google, Apple, Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft and Standford University, to gain insights on the transformative potential of emerging technologies and best practices for enhancing organisational adaptability and driving innovation.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “Empowering the next generation of leaders is crucial for the future growth of our business. Through these programmes, we ensure young people are able to learn from others and are equipped to drive transformative change. Industry 4.0 is already transforming the competitive landscape in our industry and at EGA, and will be central to the success that today’s youth will deliver during their careers.”

Hala Alhashmi, Chair of EGA Youth Council and Product Owner in the Digital Transformation & Industry 4.0 Department at EGA, said: “Exploring global innovations and emerging technologies is essential to enhance our competitiveness, drive growth, and remain relevant in today's digital economy. As young people at EGA, we are proud to be playing an active role in shaping a dynamic and progressive future for our company.”

FURSA is an exclusive platform for EGA employees under the age of 35. It includes 26 academic courses, from prestigious universities such as Harvard, Oxford and London Business School, and wide range of tailored experiences in volunteering, and collaboration.

The EGA Youth Council hosted and participated in over 20 events during 2023 including 11 nation-wide impact initiatives.

Founded in 2018, the EGA Youth Council empowers aspiring young employees to enhance their leadership skills and become pacesetters for change in the nation. The council operates under three main tenets as a foundation of its five-year strategy - empowering youth, engaging them, and fostering their development.

EGA developed the digital manufacturing platform with Microsoft as part of a strategic collaboration to progress EGA’s Digital Roadmap. The platform enables the integration of hardware, software, processes, and people throughout EGA’s global operations.

The platform was built using the latest generation of Microsoft Azure hybrid cloud, to use artificial intelligence at a significant scale across EGA’s global industrial operations including Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah to further improve industrial process efficiency, quality and safety.

The hybrid infrastructure deploys digital architecture previously used in many defence and space projects, while combining the advantages of public and on-premises hybrid cloud processing.

The digital manufacturing platform will enable EGA to reduce the unit cost of running artificial intelligence-based image and video analytics by more than 80 per cent, while increasing speeds as much as 13 times compared to EGA’s previous solution.

EGA’s digital manufacturing platform currently processes over 2.9 petabytes of real-time data annually, equivalent to streaming more than 32,000 movies at 4K resolution, and will be regularly expanded in future. 

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “EGA’s bold aspiration is to become a digital lighthouse for the region and the global aluminium industry, because we see enormous potential to unlock additional value for our business through Industry 4.0. The digital manufacturing platform, developed in collaboration with Microsoft, transforms our operations by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence at scale, while unlocking significant opportunities for further Industry 4.0 applications.”

Carlo K Nizam, Chief Digital Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said, “EGA’s digital transformation strategy has two parallel tracks to fundamentally transform how we operate – implementing high-impact digital solutions for immediate business impact, and building important digital foundations to enable company-wide transformation. The digital manufacturing platform is one of these key foundations.”

Christoph Berlin, General Manager and Partner Architect, Microsoft Azure, said: “Today’s announcement marks a key milestone in our strategic collaboration with EGA, a company which is a leader in the application of Industry 4.0 in the Middle East. Their new digital manufacturing platform, created in collaboration with Microsoft, is a great example of using Microsoft’s Adaptive Cloud Framework to fundamentally rethink and modernise OT in a cloud-first era to embrace modern capabilities such as Generative AI. We look forward to our continued collaboration with EGA.”

Earlier this year, EGA announced the groundbreaking for the region’s first 100 per cent renewable energy powered industrial data centres at its Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah sites. The digital manufacturing platform will be hosted on EGA’s data centres in the future.

EGA launched its digital transformation in 2021, aiming to enhance every aspect of its operations and business, while upgrading customer and employee experience and ultimately creating new revenue streams.

In its wider digital transformation, EGA has so far implemented over 60 Industry 4.0 use cases, ranging from using artificial intelligence vision to quality check carbon anode production in real-time, to developing predictive tools for market movements in key commodities. To date, almost 2,000 EGA employees have been upskilled in digital capabilities and ways of working, and the transformation has delivered some $90 million in financial impact.

Both EGA and Microsoft are members of the UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology’s Industry 4.0 Champions Network, which aims to accelerate Industry 4.0 adoption across UAE industry.

The new data centres will enable EGA to further deploy artificial intelligence and automation solutions at the heart of the company’s industrial operations, while reducing EGA’s total IT energy consumption by 50 per cent through real-time Artificial Intelligence-optimised power, cooling management and latest generation computer infrastructure.

EGA is developing the new data centres with local technology provider, Scientechnic. The construction is a key part of EGA’s digital roadmap, which is transforming EGA’s operations through Industry 4.0 adoption and broader digital transformation.

The data centres will improve the resilience of EGA’s computing and will be certified to the Uptime Institute’s Tier III standard, a global benchmark for data centres.

Around the world, computing accounts for approximately seven per cent of global electricity consumption, and this is forecast to rise to 13 per cent by 2030, according to the European Commission.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “EGA’s bold aspiration to innovate the future of aluminium production is a source of our global competitive advantage, and this includes leading our sector in the implementation of Industry 4.0. Our new data centres, combined with our existing cloud computing resources, transform our data processing capacity. Improving the environmental sustainability of EGA’s computing infrastructure is part of our commitment to embed sustainability in everything we do. The construction of EGA’s new on-site data centres is an important milestone in our goal to establish a thriving manufacturing innovation ecosystem in the UAE.”

Carlo K Nizam, Chief Digital Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “Our new data centres will optimise the resilience and sustainability of EGA's digital manufacturing platform which supports data-heavy artificial intelligence and advanced automation solutions. This will help enable EGA’s future ambition of self-optimising artificial intelligence driven plant operations, such as fully-autonomous crane and vehicle operations.”

Last year, EGA announced a strategic collaboration with Microsoft UAE to progress the company’s digital roadmap, shifting two thirds of EGA’s server and applications infrastructure to Microsoft Azure Hybrid Cloud. The hybrid cloud combines computing resources both on-site at EGA and in Microsoft’s data centres.

Both Microsoft and EGA are members of the UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology’s Industry 4.0 Champions Network, which aims to accelerate Industry 4.0 adoption across UAE industry.

The development of the data centres and the use of the hybrid cloud together increase EGA’s data processing capacity by 2,300 times while significantly reducing unit processing costs, future proofing EGA’s computing for the company’s digital transformation.

EGA has developed technology in the UAE for more than 30 years and is focused on improving the efficiency of the aluminium smelting process. EGA’s latest home-grown technology is among the most efficient and competitive in the global aluminium industry.

Scientechnic is headquartered in Dubai and is one of the region’s leading integrated solution providers of electrical, mechanical, power, automation, and mobility technologies.

In 2022, EGA spent some $2.18 billion on goods and services from local UAE suppliers, accounting for 39 per cent of the company’s total global procurement spend. EGA is actively working to grow its local supply chain further in line with the UAE’s Operation 300bn industrial growth strategy and ‘Make it in the Emirates’.

Both Microsoft and EGA are members of the UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology’s  Industry 4.0 Champions Network, which aims to accelerate Industry 4.0 adoption across UAE industry. 

Under the new agreement, the two companies will work together to progress EGA’s Digital Roadmap, which is already transforming EGA’s operations through digital capabilities such as artificial intelligence and big data.

EGA and Microsoft will leverage the power of cloud computing to accelerate and scale the development of new digital solutions, shifting a third of EGA’s server infrastructure and applications to Microsoft Azure Cloud.

Through digital transformation and by driving increased efficiencies, Microsoft’s cloud will empower EGA to make substantial energy savings.  EGA is estimating to reduce the energy consumption of its overall computing operations by up to 65 per cent and CO2 emissions by more than 80 per cent.

EGA will also develop a private Microsoft Azure Cloud at its sites, shifting a further third of its computing to this system, unlocking opportunities to deploy data-heavy and time-sensitive artificial intelligence and automation solutions within the company’s industrial operations.

EGA will use virtual desktop cloud computers to create a more efficient, flexible, and secure workplace computing experience for employees.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “We are already transforming EGA’s operations, business and employee experience through Industry 4.0 and our broader digital transformation. Our collaboration with Microsoft will enable us to further accelerate, scale and sustain this work as a digital lighthouse for the region and our industry.”

Carlo K. Nizam, Chief Digital Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “Deploying EGA’s and Microsoft’s talent, muscle and technology together will allow us to develop the most advanced digital capabilities and hybrid cloud platform in the aluminium industry. At the same time, we will improve the environmental sustainability of EGA’s computing infrastructure and benefit from seamless security and operations of both our public and private cloud assets."

Naim Yazbeck, General Manager at Microsoft UAE, said: “We are proud to partner with EGA, the largest ‘premium aluminium’ producer in the world, to accelerate their Industry 4.0 transformation while also pioneering further improvements in Microsoft’s own cloud for manufacturing services. I look forward to further collaborations between EGA and Microsoft in the future, both locally and globally.”

EGA will provide input to Microsoft on innovations and improvements to the technology company’s products and services. Microsoft will help upskill EGA staff on relevant Microsoft technologies to accelerate adoption within the aluminium giant’s operations.

EGA has a bold aspiration to innovate the future of aluminium production. For the decades ahead, the company intends to act as technology pathfinder for the aluminium industry, expanding its position as technology supplier of choice, and establishing a thriving manufacturing innovation ecosystem in the UAE.

EGA has developed technology in the UAE for more than 25 years and is focused on improving the efficiency of the aluminium smelting process. EGA’s latest home-grown technology is among the most efficient and competitive in the global aluminium industry.