Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the world's largest aluminium smelters, said it has achieved the highest metal production in its 40-year history in 2011 with 881,310 metric tonnes, a substantial leap from 850,700 mtpa achieved the previous year.

Announcing the historic feat, Alba chief executive, Laurent Schmitt said the company's commitment to operational efficiency and the active involvement of its talented workforce enabled the company to achieve the highest metal production in its 40-year history.

He was speaking at a ceremony held to mark this accomplishment at the Princess Sabeeka Oasis on Thursday in the presence of Alba chief supply chain officer and acting chief operation officer, Isa Al Ansari, chief financial officer, Tim Murray and chief marketing officer, Jean Baptiste Lucas and other senior company officials.

Commenting on the success, Schmitt said, 'It was a challenging year for most industries in Bahrain, and yet, in 2011, Alba succeeded in achieving the highest metal production in the company’s 40-year history.'

'This achievement is significant because it was accomplished without incurring any additional expenditure and was due to the effective teamwork and active involvement of Alba’s talented work force,' he noted.

The production figures for 2011 reached 881,310 mtpa which was the highest level ever recorded and a substantial increase from the 850,700 mtpa that was produced the previous year, said Schmit.

“In addition, Alba’s introduction of Six-Sigma to strengthen quality initiatives across the organisation as well as implementation of lean management techniques to help build a culture of continuous improvement played a substantial role in enabling Alba to achieve this record,' he noted.

According to him, the success of Alba SmartWay launched in 2010 as a bottom-up approach to achieve improved competitiveness provided a key cornerstone in bringing about greater operational efficiency to sustain regional and global challenges in the decades to come.

'Alba’s high-grade aluminium product range includes standard and T-ingots, extrusion billets, rolling slab, propertzi ingots and molten aluminium. They are produced to high purity standards that exceed 99.9 per cent,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service