EMAL is thinking big in aluminium

As Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) prepares to begin production at its smelter, the company already plans to double its capacity and become the world’s largest single-site producer by 2014, says an official of the project. The first phase of the smelter project at Khalifa Port Industrial Zone is on course to start production this year, said Maurizio La Noce, the executive director of business development at Mubadala Development. “I’m confident that in the next six months we will announce the next phase,” said Mr La Noce. The expansion would give the smelter the capacity to produce 1.4 million tonnes of aluminium a year. It is one of “several” large industrial initiatives in the pipeline to be announced by the firm in the next six months, Mr La Noce said. They would include projects in the aerospace and car industries. In addition to Mubadala, EMAL is backed by Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL), which operates a smelter near Jebel Ali. The EMAL smelter is one of Abu Dhabi’s biggest and most important initiatives to diversify the economy and lessen its reliance on crude oil. Mubadala, the strategic investment arm of the Abu Dhabi Government, plans to next year appraise six recent commercial oil and natural gas discoveries in Vietnam and Thailand, Mr La Noce said. “This year we drilled 11 aspirational wells and had six commercial discoveries already, which is phenomenal,” he said. Next year the firm will approve and appraise the discoveries to determine the size of the reserves and what type of development plan would be used to help deliver the hydrocarbons commercially. The discoveries will lead to the firm increasing its current output of 25,000 barrels a day in the region, said Mr La Noce. Mubadala bought Pearl Energy, based in Singapore, for about US$833 million (Dh3.05bn) in May last year from Aabar Energy, the Abu Dhabi investment company. “Mubadala’s strategy at the moment is one of execution, consolidation and monitoring very carefully what other opportunities there are out there,” Mr La Noce said. He said one of the firm’s objectives was to continue to grow and build on the Dh70bn of assets it manages. Mubadala is focusing its strategy on oil and gas, health care, infrastructure, property, hospitality and aerospace, among other sectors. The firm’s property sector was “thriving”, said Mr La Noce. Mubadala’s profits more than quadrupled in the first half of this year, after rising prices for its growing pool of assets offset higher costs incurred as it expanded into new operations, it announced last month.