Qatalum puts focus on boosting capacity

Qatalum, an equal joint venture between Norway’s Hydro Aluminium and Qatar Petroleum, yesterday ruled out direct involvement in downstream industries but said its focus will be on capacity enhancement.

“We are committed to supporting and offering all kind of assistance in establishing downstream industries. But we will not be directly involved,” Qatalum CEO Tom Petter Johansen told the 16th Arab International Aluminium (Arabal) conference.

Assuring proactive support to downstream industries, Johansen said Qatalum produces high quality products that could be utilised by the downstream industry.

He said the market for the downstream is there and the government of Qatar is encouraging the downstream industry in the country to utilise Qatalum products.

“As we believe that there should be no limits to industry and no borders to markets, we are targeting all accessible markets, while special attention in the coming period will be paid to industries that depend on the outputs of the aluminium industry,” according to Qatalum chairman Abdulrahman Ahmed al-Shaibi.

After oil and petrochemicals, he said the aluminium industry has become one of the essential manufacturing industries on which the economic strategy was determined. “Aluminium has a reasonable role in supporting and developing the industrial sector and forms a basis for midstream and downstream industries locally and globally,” he added.

Within Qatalum, al-Shaibi said, it is determined to increase the feasible investments directed towards developing and expanding the smelter and to establish many new projects related to primary production.

This determination would only be in line with the potential growth and expansion of the industry through increasing demand for aluminium, he said.

“We are determined to enhance our presence in global markets by taking proactive measures in opening new markets through the continuous application of global standards and qualifications for our high quality products,” al-Shaibi said, adding “this provides us with an advantage when meeting competition and coping with price volatility as well as supply and demand trends.”

The industrial sector in Qatar is moving on the right track, supported by incentives and industrial benefits that aim to encourage investment and to focus on projects that are based on best available technology, according to him.

Finding that the energy sector represents massive opportunities for industrial investment in the country, al-Shaibi said Qatalum has been able to put in place modern infrastructure to serve the national industries and to meet the current demands and future challenges.

“We have managed to increase the industrial sector’s share of national GDP (gross domestic product) and to encourage the private sector to increase its contribution to industrial development, ultimately increasing the manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP and achieving the highest level of integration between the different industrial sectors operating in the country,” al-Shaibi said.