Dubai should look to set up a specialist zone for aluminium and metal fabrication to support its industrial strategy as the emirate ramps up efforts to strengthen industries, according to Dubai-based KEF Holdings’ chairman.
Faizal Kottikollon, whose company focuses on modular construction, has said that while initiatives being pursued to diversify the UAE’s aluminium sector are welcome, there should be a focus on providing the space and environment for small-scale fabricators to thrive.
“Small-scale industries are the backbone of any industrial economy,” he said. “There are a couple of high-profile manufacturers [in Dubai] but what we need is a development zone. We need to incentivise people to come.”
Dubai unveiled in June its 2030 Industrial Strategy aimed at generating an additional Dh160 billion for the emirate’s economy by increasing exports, improving contribution of the sector to GDP and creating 27,000 jobs. The strategy involved beefing up the key aluminium and metals sector among other industries.
Mr Kottikollon sees more value in the development of a zone for fabricators that, he said, could be a base for high-quality manufacturing products, which could serve the Middle East market and India.
Last week, his business opened a US$100 million factory at Tamil Nadu near Bangalore and is expected to open another in Jebel Ali later next year – both of which are aimed at industrialising the construction process by producing modular building sections in factory-controlled conditions, which are then assembled on site.
He said that in India it is struggling to find “ancillary support” from local fabricators.
“There are no quality manufacturers in India because there are no organised industrial zones over there,” said Mr Kottikollon.
He said there is an opportunity for companies based in Dubai to service a market that has been growing at a rate of about 7-8 per cent per year.
“There’s going to be a huge shortfall of fabrication requirements in India, which can be supported from here,” he said.
One company that is instrumental to the development of the aluminium and metal fabrication sector is Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), which was formed in 2013 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) and Emirates Aluminium. It is working with large-scale international companies that will offer a liquid aluminium feedstock from its expanded Al Taweelah refinery in the Khalifa Industrial Zone.
This will allow a more diverse range of products to be made locally than the aluminium ingots that it currently produces and largely exports.
EGA is looking to add more value through a “mine to metal” strategy that has involved it buying a Bauxite mine in Guinea and a new alumina refinery alongside its smelters, Walid Al Attar, the chief marketing officer for EGA, told The National earlier this year.
The development of a metals “cluster” using the liquid aluminium could become “a significant hub of industrial activity for many businesses in the UAE over the years to come”, he said.
mfahy@thenational.ae
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