Widely regarded as the industrial flagship of the UAE, and renowned for its commitment to technological innovation, Dubai Aluminium Company Limited (“DUBAL”) has entered into a landmark agreement relating to the deployment of the company’s Pot Control System at Iran’s Al-Mahdi aluminium smelter. The agreement marks the first time that this proprietary information technology application will be used outside DUBAL.
The system will be incorporated in the Hormozal expansion project at Al Mahdi - which involves the addition of a second potline to the existing smelter infrastructure at Bandar Abbas, plus the expansion of the main substation (rectifiers), the construction of one anode baking kiln, the expansion of the casthouse and other auxiliary facilities.
“Italy’s Fata Group, which has been engaged to construct Al-Mahdi’s second potline, placed the order for the DUBAL Pot Control System through AIS - one of its associates in Italy,” says Ahmad Almulla, Chief Information Officer: DUBAL. “The two-phased Hormozal project will add 228 pots to the Al-Mahdi smelter, for which Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation (“IMMIDRO”) has also secured the use of DUBAL’s D20 pot technology. In terms of the agreement signed with Fata, DUBAL will supply its Pot Control System for the 156 pots added during the first phase of the project, which is currently under construction. The first metal is expected to be produced in the last quarter of 2008. The second phase is expected to follow within a few months.”
DUBAL’s contractual obligations encompass supplying the Pot Controllers (“DCCU”) with the company’s software, various section panels, data acquisition system and audio announcement system, along with the web-based potline supervisory software, called iPOTS. DUBAL will also supervise the installation of the pot control system in the new potline, commission, test the system and provide start-up support.
“We’d like to believe that this is the first of many instances where our IT systems will add value to other organisations,” says Almulla. “Especially as various other technology transfer projects currently under negotiation also include our Pot Control System as part of the package.”
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About Dubai Aluminium Company – DUBAL
DUBAL is ranked as the seventh largest producer of primary aluminium in the world, and currently ranks as the largest single-site aluminium smelter complex in the Western world and is also the single largest non-oil contributor to the economy of Dubai. Built on a 480-hectare site, DUBAL’s major facilities comprise an 883,000 tonnes-per-annum primary aluminium smelter, a 1,983 megawatt power station, a large carbon plant, three casthouses, a 30-million-gallon-per-day water desalination plant, laboratories, port and storage facilities.
The company has the capacity to produce more than 900,000 metric tonnes of high quality finished aluminium products a year, in three main forms: foundry alloy for automotive applications, extrusion billet for construction purposes and high purity aluminium for the electronics industry. A dynamic growth strategy will increase annual production volumes of metal to almost one million metric tonnes by 2008.
DUBAL serves 280 customers in 44 countries predominantly in the Far East, Europe, the ASEAN region, the Middle East and Mediterranean region, and North America. The company holds ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certification; and has twice won the Dubai Quality Award in the Production and Manufacturing sector (1996 and 2000).
