Saudi Arabia's reliance on alumina imports decreases significantly, 2016 volume down 35% YoY

Saudi Arabia, which is home to the GCC's only integrated aluminium complex- Ma'aden Aluminium (a joint venture between the Saudi Arabian Mining Company and Alcoa), is inching towards becoming fully self-reliant in alumina procurement for metal production within the country. Construction at Ma'aden's Al Ba’itha bauxite mine, the first one in the Middle East is progressing at a steady pace. On completion, the mine is estimated to produce over 4 million metric tonnes of bauxite ore per year (mtpy) which will be refined in the GCC's first alumina refinery to produce 1.8 million mtpy of alumina. Much of this alumina will be processed in MA's smelter to produce 740,000 mtpy of aluminium. For now, Saudi has to depend on alumina imports for domestic metal production, but the volume of imports has been declining over the last three years.

{newsStudioGallery}

Saudi Arabia imported 22,419 tonnes of alumina in 2015 from countries like Bahrain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, and the US. In 2016, the total import volume of alumina came down significantly (-34.6 per cent year-on-year) to total at 14,656.96 tones. In 2017, till August, the Gulf country is estimated to purchase 12,325.29 tonnes of alumina, up 44.9 per cent from the corresponding period previous year.

Value-wise, too, alumina imports by Saudi Arabia have shown YoY decline over the last three years. In 2015, the country imported alumina worth US$75.31 million, which came down by 37.55 per cent to stand at US$47.03 million in 2016. In 2017, till August, the value is estimated to remain almost unchanged at US$47.39 million vis-a-vis the annual purchase value, but up 104.7 per cent from the corresponding period previous year.

In 2016, Saudi Arabia imported alumina from the following top five countries:

China - 5600.55 tonnes
France - 2998.21 tonnes
India - 2895.28 tonnes
USA - 2463.60 tonnes
Netherlands - 208.54 tonnes

{googleAdsense}

Saudi Arabia commenced commercial production of alumina at its Ma'aden alumina refinery in October last year. By early 2017, production is expected to reach maximum annual capacity of 1.8 million tonnes, meeting Ma'aden's domestic requirement of 1.4 million tonnes for its smelter and allowing the surplus to be sold elsewhere in the region and internationally. The company said earnings from the venture would begin to have an impact on its results from the fourth quarter of the current financial year onward.