Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), one of the world’s largest aluminium producers, has signed a three-year alumina supply agreement with Vietnamese state-owned miner Vinacomin as the UAE seeks to secure feedstock for its smelters...
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), one of the world’s largest aluminium producers, has signed a three-year alumina supply agreement with Vietnamese state-owned miner Vinacomin as the UAE seeks to secure feedstock for its smelters.
EGA will receive 300,000 tonnes of alumina per year under the agreement, the first such long-term supply deal between the UAE and a Vietnamese alumina producer, EGA said in a statement. It didn’t say when the company will start receiving alumina from Vinacomin.
Alumina, which is the feedstock for aluminium smelters, is sourced from bauxite. EGA currently imports all the alumina it uses in aluminium production.
“This agreement with Vinacomin is in line with our strategy to diversify our sources of supply for alumina, to secure the resources that the UAE’s aluminium industry needs to grow at competitive prices,” said EGA chief executive Abdulla Kalban. “We hope to develop our relationship with Vinacomin further in the future.”
EGA, which was created in 2013 through a merger between Abu Dhabi’s Emal and Dubai’s Dubal, is developing a US$1 billion bauxite mine and other facilities in Guinea to secure the supply of the raw material for its $3 billion alumina refinery facility currently being built in Al Taweelah, Abu Dhabi. Once fully operational, the refinery, the first in the UAE, will produce 2 million tonnes of alumina per year, meeting 40 per cent of EGA’s needs.