The Dubai Aluminum Company Ltd. (Dubal) board has put forward plans to increase its production capacity by another 150,000 tons per annum. The expansion scheme is expected to be approved by mid-2002, reported Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
"The proposal is independent of the 530,000 ton per annum Heron expansion project dubal has planned for several years,” Dubal Vice Chairman Mohammed Alabbar told Gulf News.
Government-owned Dubal reached a sales volume of 536,000 tons in 2000, supplying a variety of 70 products to 44 countries. The company alone accounts for some 10 percent of UAE's GDP and around 50 percent of Dubai's non-oil export revenues, generating more foreign exchange for Dubai than any other industry outside the energy sector.
Sources at Dubal reported negotiations are underway regarding lowering the European six percent duty imposed on the Gulf aluminum exports. The Company exports 20 percent of output to the European Union, 50 percent is destined for Asian markets—mainly Japan—10 percent to the United States, and the rest to Middle Eastern markets and.
Dubal commenced operations in October 1979. The plant is built on a 480-hectare site, approximately 35 kilometers South of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Dubal operates one of the largest and lowest cost primary aluminum smelters in the world. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
