Collectively the five aluminium primary producers EGA (UAE), Alba (Bahrain), Ma’aden Aluminium (Saudi Arabia), Qatalum (Qatar) and Sohar Aluminium (Oman) have produced 5.22 million tonnes of primary Aluminium in 2016.

"During 2016 GCC aluminium smelter and downstream have been going through disciplined productivity improvement and cost cutting initiatives, while maintaining key competitive advantage of having most sophisticated facilities to produce a variety of value added products for local and international market. At the same time preserving its leadership position of high environmental standards, compared to the rest of the world," the Gulf Aluminium Council was quoted as saying by Wam, the  official Emirates news agency.

GCC aluminium production constitutes 10 per cent of the total world production and is considered one of the key economic drivers for the Gulf region. Forty per cent of the total production are utilised by the downstream aluminium industries in the Gulf and 60 percent exported to different parts of the world.