Emirates Aluminium (Emal), the joint venture between Mubadala and Dubal, announced today the successful financial completion of its $5.7 billion Phase I project.

 

Financial completion represents another important milestone for Emal with all Phase I project completion criteria met, said a statement.

 

In July 2012, just two and a half years since it began production, Emal achieved cumulative production of 1.5 million tons of hot metal, the fastest production achieved by a single site smelter in the global aluminium industry to date, it said. 

 

Saeed Fadhel Al Mazrooei, president and CEO of EMAL, said: “This is a landmark achievement for Emal and we would like to thank everyone involved for all their hard work and dedication, especially our employees, partners and shareholders. We look forward to finalising the financing for Phase II as we continue to work towards making Emal one of the largest and most advanced smelters in the world.”

 

Emal announced the approval of the Phase II expansion project in July 2011. A new 444-cell potline is being built, which, together with a technology upgrade of the existing cells, is expected to increase Emal's annual production capacity to approximately 1.3 million tons by the end of 2014. Construction is being funded by the shareholders while a comprehensive debt financing package is finalised, the statement said. – TradeArabia News Service