EGA to supply CelestiAL solar aluminium to parts maker Hammerer Aluminium Industries, Tier 1 supplier of a premium car manufacturer

Ranshofen (21.04.2022) – Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates and the world’s biggest ‘premium aluminium’ producer, today signed an agreement to supply CelestiAL solar aluminium to Mercedes-Benz parts maker Hammerer Aluminium Industries.

The agreement will see EGA’s CelestiAL metal return to the UAE, as well as being distributed all over the world. EGA supplies thousands of tonnes of aluminium to HAI each year. A proportion of this supply now switch to CelestiAL.

Rob van Gils, Chief Executive Officer of Hammerer Aluminium Industries, said: “This partnership with EGA enables us to contribute to a better future and shows that aluminium has a key role to play in achieving the European Union’s Green Deal ambitions to decarbonise manufacturing. I am personally excited that many parts of the premium SUVs which are so popular in the UAE will be produced by HAI using EGA’s UAE-made CelestiAL solar aluminium. I look forward to driving these vehicles on the UAE’s sand dunes.”

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “The launch of EGA’s CelestiAL solar aluminium was a landmark in our industry’s drive to net zero. We expect to soon be able to increase production of CelestiAL, and meet more of the significant global demand for this innovative, low-carbon metal. We are proud that HAI, and their customers like Mercedes-Benz AG, will use aluminium made with the power of the UAE sun.”

In 2021, EGA became the first company in the world to produce aluminium commercially using the solar power through a partnership with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, which operates the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in the desert outside Dubai.

EGA expects to vastly increase its production of CelestiAL through an initiative with Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC, Dubal Holding and Emirates Water and Electricity Company to divest its electricity generation assets and source power from the grid, including an increasing proportion of clean energy.

Producing aluminium is energy intensive, and generating electricity accounts for some 60 per cent of the global aluminium industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. The use of solar power significantly reduces the emissions associated with aluminium smelting.

The HAI Group

Hammerer Aluminium Industries employs about 2,000 people. The company was founded in 2007 and has its headquarters in Ranshofen in Upper Austria as well as seven further locations in Germany, Romania and Poland. HAI can look back on a great success story. It combines dynamics and the innovative spirit of a young company with the experience of a traditional business. For 2021 HAI forecasts a turnover of about 640 million euros in the three production areas Casting (foundry), Extrusion and Processing (mechanical further processing). The products of the HAI Group can be found in the construction sector, automotive, transport and electrical engineering as well as mechanical and plant engineering.

Media contact:

Elfriede Dicker, Assistenz GF & Marketing HAI-Gruppe
Hammerer Aluminium Industries Holding GmbH
Lamprechtshausener Straße 69
5282  Ranshofen, Austria
0043 7722 891 2540
0043 664 884 61096
elfriede.dicker@hai-aluminium.com

EGA

Since 1975, when it was founded as Dubai Aluminium by His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates Global Aluminium has been innovating aluminium to make modern life possible. Today EGA is the world’s biggest ‘premium aluminium’ producer and the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry.

EGA is equally-owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai. It is the largest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.EGA is an integrated aluminium producer, with operations from bauxite mining to the production of cast primary aluminium. EGA operates aluminium smelters in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, an alumina refinery in Al Taweelah and a bauxite mine and associated export facilities in the Republic of Guinea.

EGA’s aluminium is the second largest made-in-the UAE export after oil and gas. In 2021, EGA sold 2.54 million tonnes of cast metal. EGA is the only UAE producer and makes the UAE the fifth largest aluminium producing nation in the world. EGA has more than 400 customers in over 50 countries. In 2021, value-added products accounted for 84 per cent of EGA’s cast metal sales. EGA’s aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, packaging, aerospace and electronics industries.

Around 10 per cent of EGA’s aluminium production is sold in the UAE to around 26 downstream aluminium companies that make products with EGA’s aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the UAE supports 60,950 jobs. EGA itself employs over 7,000 of these people including almost 1,200 UAE Nationals.

EGA has focused on technology development for over 25 years. EGA has used its own technology for every smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines. In 2016 EGA became the first UAE industrial company to licence its core industrial process technology internationally.

As a corporate citizen of the UAE, EGA aspires in all its operations to be measured amongst the world’s leading metals and mining companies in meeting its environmental and social responsibilities. In 2017, EGA became the first Middle East headquartered company to join the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, a global programme to foster greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminium industry. In 2019, EGA’s Al Taweelah site became the first in the Middle East to receive certification from ASI for its sustainability practices and performance. EGA’s Jebel Ali site was certified in 2021. ASI certification is the aluminium industry’s internationally recognised standard for environmental and social performance and governance.

In 2021, EGA began production of CelestiAL solar aluminium, produced with solar power from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park on the outskirts of Dubai. EGA is the first company in the world to make aluminium commercially using the power of the sun. EGA was formed in 2014 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium.

EGA’s Jebel Ali aluminium smelter began production as DUBAL in 1979. At almost five square kilometres, this site is five times bigger than Dubai Mall.

EMAL started production in 2009 and its Al Taweelah aluminium smelter was the largest single-site aluminium smelter in the world when completed. EGA’s Al Taweelah site is five times bigger than Al Maryah Island at six square kilometres.

EGA has its own power stations at both sites, producing electricity to meet its needs. EGA’s electricity generation capacity is 6,474 megawatts, making EGA the third largest electricity generator in the UAE after the Dubai and Abu Dhabi utilities. EGA also produces water through desalination units at its power plants.

EGA began production at Al Taweelah alumina refinery in April 2019. EGA’s alumina refinery is the first in the UAE and only the second in the Middle East. The project reduces the UAE’s dependence on imported alumina and supplies over 40 per cent of EGA’s needs.

Bauxite exports from Guinea Alumina Corporation, EGA’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Guinea, began in August 2019. The GAC project was one of the largest greenfield investments in Guinea in over 40 years.