Dubai Aluminium reports net profits

Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) the state-owned enterprise yesterday reported net profit of Dh1.58 billion on a gross sales revenue of Dh9.77 billion.

Dubal is one of the most profitable corporations in Dubai’s portfolio.

“Dubal’s leading position is further affirmed by compound annual revenue and profit growth rates from 1996 to 2012 of 11.2 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively,” said Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Dubal Board.

“Dubal’s net profit includes our company’s share in the profits of Emirates Aluminium (Emal), which amounted to Dh92 million in 2012 during its second full year of production. This year, management decided to adjust partial impairment of Guinea. Reducing budgeted capital expenditures and maintaining tight working capital control contributed significantly to achieving healthier cash generation from operating activities and free cash flow. This provided support to maintain a very strong balance sheet for Dubal,” said Abdulla J M Kalban, President & Chief Executive Officer of Dubal.

Emal in the Al Taweelah area of Abu Dhabi is a joint venture in which Dubal is a 50 per cent shareholder with Mubadala Development Company. Commissioning of all 756 reduction cells in Emal Phase I was completed in record time by the end of 2010, enabling the plant to operate at its full capacity from 2011 onwards.

Widely acknowledged as the UAE’s industrial flagship, Dubal began operating in 1979 with an initial production capacity of 135,000 tonnes per year. The company has since undergone a series of major expansion projects, together increasing the production capacity of Dubal’s Jebel Ali plant more than seven-fold to more than one million tonnes per year.

Dubal is currently engaged in strategic upstream bauxite/alumina projects in Brazil, Republic of Guinea, Cameroon and in the UAE, that are in various stages of development.