UAE’s primary aluminium industry promoted in Europe

The potential of Dubai Aluminium Company Limited ("DUBAL") and Emirates Aluminium Company Limited ("EMAL") - the key players in the UAE's primary aluminium industry - to supply metal to end-users in Europe has been successfully promoted, thanks to the joint participation of the two companies at the Commodity Research Unit's 16th World Aluminium Conference ("CRU 2011").

Several platforms were leveraged for this purpose, namely a combined stand in the exhibition component alongside the conference - used to promote both companies and DUBAL's proprietary world-leading DX Reduction Technology that has been implemented on industrial scale at EMAL Phase I; plus joint sponsorship of the CRU 2011 Registration Desk; and luncheon on 14 June. The resulting strong presence ensured excellent exposure of the DUBAL and EMAL brands to the hundreds of senior executives from the aluminium industry across the world who attended CRU 2011.

In addition, DUBAL's Sultan Al Sabri (General Manager Marketing & Sales: Europe & North America) delivered a presentation entitled "The outlook for the Middle Eastern Aluminium industry in light of current political turmoil" during the opening Keynote Session. Commenting specifically on the political flashpoints in the greater Middle East, he pointed out that the involvement of the GCC countries in the current unrest has been limited to Bahrain and Oman. While acknowledging that the turmoil has brought unique challenges - such as reduced demand for primary aluminium, higher costs of doing business, logistics issues and potential risk-aversion of inward investment and financing; the forecast impact of the Middle East crisis is fairly nominal. By contrast, the accelerated social and infrastructural development proposed across the region in the aftermath of the crisis is expected to bring increased demand and thus good growth. Moreover, new markets are emerging within the greater Middle East North Africa ("MENA") region, as well as farther a field.

"The European market is nevertheless of strategic importance to both DUBAL and EMAL," says Walid Al Attar (Executive Vice President Marketing & Sales: DUBAL and Vice President: Marketing & Sales: EMAL). "Having made our first forays into the region fifteen years ago, in 1996, DUBAL has since built long-term partnership relationships with customers that have driven consistent growth over the years. As a result, almost 230,000 metric tonnes of DUBAL metal reached Europe's shores in 2010. A further 22,000 metric tonnes of metal produced by EMAL was also sold in Europe during 2010 (i.e. 252,000 metric tonnes in total from DUBAL and EMAL). We anticipate selling about 445,000 metric tonnes of primary aluminium into Europe during 2011, of which some 194,000 metric tonnes will be from EMAL."