Emirates Global Aluminium and Alcoa sign alumina supply agreement

The partnership will make the US company the largest third-party supplier of the oxide to the UAE industrial giant

Billets in EGA's Casthouse yard. The eight-year partnership with Alcoa starts in 2024. Photo: EGA

Emirates Global Aluminium, the UAE’s largest industrial company outside the oil and gas sector, has signed an agreement with US company Alcoa for the supply of smelter-grade alumina.

The eight-year partnership, which starts in 2024, will allow EGA to procure 15.6 million metric tonnes of alumina from Western Australia, where Pennsylvania-based Alcoa has operations, the companies said on Tuesday.

The agreement will make Alcoa the largest third-party supplier of alumina to EGA.

Before this, EGA’s Al Taweelah alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi met 47 per cent of EGA’s total alumina needs in 2022, the company said.

“Most of our alumina needs into the next decade are now secured by our own production and a long-term supplier in Alcoa that is aligned with our sustainability goals,” said EGA chief executive Abdulnasser bin Kalban.

“This agreement will further strengthen EGA’s platform for future growth.”

Alumina, also known as aluminium oxide, is used as the starting material in the aluminium smelting process.

Derived from bauxite, it also serves as the raw material used in a wide range of ceramic products, as well as an active agent in chemical processing.

The partnership includes options for EGA to choose Alcoa’s low-carbon EcoSource alumina, the industry’s only low-carbon alumina brand.

EcoSource is produced with 600kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne of alumina, which is half of the industry’s average of 1.2 tonnes, the companies said.

This is in line with EGA's commitment to sustainability, aligned with the development of its own technology to decarbonise operations and reduce emissions.

“The agreement is the largest alumina supply contract ever signed between Alcoa and EGA,” said Roy Harvey, president and chief executive of Alcoa.

“It is one of the largest in the industry and will strengthen the long-term supply relationship between our two companies.”

EGA, one of the world's largest aluminium producers, has smelters in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, an alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi and a bauxite mine in Guinea.

It is jointly owned by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company and the Investment Corporation of Dubai.

The UAE is the fifth-largest aluminium producing country in the world. EGA’s aluminium is the biggest made-in-the-UAE export after oil and gas, and is shipped to more than 50 countries.

The aluminium sector accounts for 1.4 per cent of the UAE economy, according to the latest data.