CANEX Aluminium wins Women With Metal - Champion Company award at ALUMINIUM 2026

CANEX Aluminium, an aluminium extrusion and die-casting manufacturer based in 6th of October City, Egypt, received the Women With Metal - Champion Company award on 6 October 2026, as confirmed in the organiser's official 2026 winners list. The award was presented at the second edition of Women With Metal – The ALUMINIUM Awards, held in the Conference Theatre, Hall 7a, on the opening day of the ALUMINIUM 2026 trade fair at Messe Düsseldorf, Germany. The category recognises an organisation demonstrating outstanding commitment to empowering women and fostering an inclusive, supportive industry. CANEX was shortlisted alongside Speira GmbH, ISOLPACK SPA, and Steel and Alloy Processing / Gonvarri Steel Services. The company's QHSE Manager, Rasha Othman, was separately a finalist in three individual categories: Role Model, Unseen Impact, and Women With Metal - Champion Individual. She did not take any of the three individual awards: Role Model went to Siri Sande of Storvik Group, Unseen Impact to Nabeeha Farooqui of Crown Packaging, and Women With Metal - Champion Individual to Teresa Hayes of Logan Aluminium.

Reactions

"This award belongs to the women of CANEX, in production, in quality and in management. We have always believed that talent has no gender, and being recognised by our industry’s peers in Düsseldorf tells us we are on the right path. We will keep opening doors for women in aluminium, in Egypt and beyond," said Mutassem Daaboul, co-founder and managing director of CANEX Aluminium.

"When CANEX and Mutassem Daaboul believed in me, it was not common in our industry to trust women in operations, and especially in quality. They took the risk and challenged everyone’s expectations by showing that a woman could do this job. Being a finalist in three categories was an honor in itself, but seeing CANEX named Champion Company means even more, because it recognises the whole team. Every woman who joins our company should know there is a real career path for her in this industry," said Rasha Othman, QHSE Manager at CANEX Aluminium.

The award and the shortlist

The 2026 programme comprised six categories: Role Model, Future Leader, Unseen Impact, Sustainable & Innovative Leader, Women With Metal - Champion Individual, and Women With Metal - Champion  Company. The Champion Company category is the only one open to organisations rather than individuals, and all nominees must come from the global aluminium sector. Nominations opened on 9 March 2026 and closed on 15 June 2026. A jury reviewed the entries in June and July, voted a shortlist in each category, and published the finalists in September. The ceremony was hosted in partnership with Women With Metal, the UK Aluminium Federation (ALFED), and Aluminium International Today.

Women With Metal

Women With Metal is a UK-based network for women and allies working in the metals, manufacturing and engineering sectors. It was founded by Kirsty Davies-Chinnock, managing director of Professional Polishing Services Ltd and a director of the British Stainless Steel Association. Davies-Chinnock entered metal finishing in 1989 and has described the network’s origins as accidental, a natural step towards showing the sector as a career for women.

The network’s first conference, held at the Park Regis Hotel in Birmingham on 10 October 2023, drew more than 100 delegates from across the UK metals sectors. The 2024 conference, at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Birmingham, brought together about 300 delegates. ALFED has supported the conference as an association partner since its first year.

RX, the organiser of the ALUMINIUM trade fair, announced the awards on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2024, under the motto "Women can do aluminium, too". The inaugural ceremony at ALUMINIUM 2024 recognised individuals in five categories, including a Male Ally award. The 2026 edition expanded the programme to six categories and introduced dedicated awards for organisations.


 

Women With Metal

Women With Metal is a UK-based network for women and allies working in the metals, manufacturing and engineering sectors. It was founded by Kirsty Davies-Chinnock, managing director of Professional Polishing Services Ltd and a director of the British Stainless Steel Association. Davies-Chinnock entered metal finishing in 1989 and has described the network’s origins as accidental, a natural step towards showing the sector as a career for women. The network’s first conference, held at the Park Regis Hotel in Birmingham on 10 October 2023, drew more than 100 delegates from across the UK metals sectors. The 2024 conference, at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Birmingham, brought together about 300 delegates. ALFED has supported the conference as an association partner since its first year. RX, the organiser of the ALUMINIUM trade fair, announced the awards on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2024, under the motto "Women can do aluminium, too". The inaugural ceremony at ALUMINIUM 2024 recognised individuals in five categories, including a Male Ally award. The 2026 edition expanded the programme to six categories and introduced dedicated awards for organisations.

ALUMINIUM 2026

ALUMINIUM is a biennial trade fair for the aluminium industry, organised by RX in Düsseldorf. The 2026 edition runs from 6 to 8 October at Messe Düsseldorf, across halls 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7a. Organisers expected more than 800 exhibitors and partners and over 21,000 trade visitors. The fair covers the value chain from primary aluminium to casting, rolling, extrusion, finishing, recycling and machinery. Its conference is organised with Aluminium Deutschland, the official event partner. The 2026 edition also launched the ALUMINIUM Innovation Awards with International Aluminium Journal, in low-carbon manufacturing, product innovation, and smart, connected manufacturing.

CANEX Aluminium

CANEX Aluminium was co-founded in July 2013 by Mutassem Daaboul, its managing director. It operates a 32,000 m² facility in the CPC Industrial Park, 6th of October City, Giza Governorate. The company describes its positioning with the slogan “Boutique Aluminium Creations”. CANEX makes tailor-made extruded profiles and gravity and low-pressure die-cast components for construction, transportation, electrical busway, electronics and infrastructure. It began as an extruder and added casting to upcycle its own extrusion scrap. Its operations also include CNC machining and powder coating, and it exports to North America and Europe. Certifications listed for the company include ISO QHSE, CE marking, Cradle to Cradle, AAMA and Qualicoat Seaside. The plant runs two extrusion presses rated at 22 MN and 27 MN, employs about 350 people, and has an annual capacity of about 12,000 tons, with 50–60 per cent of sales exported to more than 16 markets. In 2020 CANEX co-organised the 1st International Workshop on Metal Reject Reduction with the Université Française d'Égypte and the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue.

Women at CANEX

CANEX held four of the 2026 finalist places: the Champion Company nomination and three individual nominations for Rasha Othman, the company’s QHSE Manager. Othman was the only finalist shortlisted in three categories that year. She has previously been listed as the company’s Quality Manager. Of the four, CANEX won the company award; the three individual awards went to finalists from other companies. Women hold management roles in several CANEX functions. Shimaa Mohamed heads procurement and supply chain, and Ghada Fouda leads the human resources and organisational development team, Mariam Hossam, executive assistant to the managing director, manages the administration team, which covers drivers, housekeeping and reception, and Layaly Tahhan leads the projects team, drawing on extensive experience in the aluminium systems industry.

Context

The award comes as the aluminium sector faces a well-documented skills shortage, which organisers have said makes attracting and retaining women an economic imperative. When launching the awards in 2024, RX said women remain underrepresented in the metal and aluminium sector and often receive less visibility and recognition.

Leadership

Mutassem Daaboul has been co-founder and managing director of CANEX since July 2013. He previously led SAMA, as Managing Director from 2005 and Chief Executive from 2011 to 2016, and served as a director of Nexus MENA & Arab Diasporas from 2017 to 2022. He studied at the Michael J. Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University. Daaboul is a second-generation board member of Daaboul Holding and has been a Responsible Leader of the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt since 2019. He is also a member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation and the Family Business Network.

Note: This article has been shared by CANEX Aluminum and has been published by AL Circle with its original information without any modifications or edits to the core subject/data.