Emirates Aluminium (Emal) will supply molten metal for a US$60 million rod mill under construction in Abu Dhabi.
The smelter will supply hot metal to the new Ducab aluminium factory being developed in Khalifa Industrial Zone (Kizad) when complete by the end of 2016.
“We will be next door to Emal’s aluminium smelter, and we will receive hot metal which offers significant savings on casting from the smelter and smelting from the factory,” said Andrew Shaw, Ducab’s managing director. “Factories with hot metal are already the most competitive and with rising energy costs, factories without it will find it increasingly difficult.”
The UAE primarily uses copper wire for power transmission, but the global market is moving towards aluminium in the cable business.
The new factory will make aluminium rods for export to Saudi Arabia as well as aluminium conductors, the overhead power cables which Ducab does not currently manufacture.
Such cables are becoming increasingly popular in the emerging economies of Africa for cost reasons.
“In revenue terms aluminium costs about 30 per cent the price of copper, which makes it far more attractive than copper to developing countries” said Mr Shaw. “Then there is the transport costs, which are minimal considering how close we are to the markets, and the lack of production costs because we will now be a hot metal aluminium producer.
“We currently have turnover of about US$1 billion worth of copper cable, but we see the new aluminium business eventually contributing about 15 per cent to our revenues.”
ascott@thenational.ae
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