Bahrain to expand aluminium capacity

Garmco plans to triple output and build region’s largest recycling plant

Bahrain-based aluminium producer Gulf Aluminium Rolling Company (Garmco) plans to triple its production capacity over the next 10 years and build the Middle East’s largest aluminium recycling plant.

Garmco is targeting a capacity of 600,000 tonnes a year (t/y) by 2022, up from 200,000 t/y today, Adel Hamad, the company’s chief executive officer, told MEED’s Aluminium 2012 conference in Dubai on 6 March.

The expansion will be executed in stages, with capacity due to be expanded to 480,000 t/y by 2017. Hamad said the company was investing more than $10m a year in adding new equipment.

Garmco sells aluminium products to more than 45 countries. It is now planning to open sales offices in the major markets where it does not have a presence such as South America, Japan and Canada.

The company is the final stages of studying the feasibility of a 100,000 t/y recycled aluminium plant, which it said will be the largest in the Middle East.

“We have to develop awareness [of recycling] and a collection system,” Hamad said. “This will cover all the GCC countries and hopefully the whole Middle East.

Garmco is also adding a 20,000 t/y plant in Bahrain to produce aluminium foil products and plans to double its capacity in the next two years.