Dubal Holding, the investment arm for the Government of Dubai for power and energy, commodities, mining and industrial projects, held its annual general meeting at the Ruler’s Court.

H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance, and Chairman of Dubal Holding, presided over the meeting.

Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Dubal Holding’s Vice Chairman, board members, directors, representatives of the shareholder from Investment Corporation of Dubai, ICD, and auditors attended the meeting.

Sheikh Hamdan praised Dubal’s good operational performance during the year 2019 as well as its 50 percent subsidiary – Emirates Global Aluminium, EGA, despite huge challenging market conditions and the drop in aluminium price on the global stock exchange.

He was briefed on the performance of EGA’s Al Taweelah Alumina Refinery in Abu Dhabi that commenced production in April 2019 and recorded a total production of 1.1 million tonnes of alumina during the year while its Bauxite mining project at Republic of Guinea (Guinea Alumina Corporation) commenced production in August and mined a total of 1.7 million tonnes of bauxite during the year.

His Highness was briefed on the status of various ongoing projects at Dubal, including the implementation of the 625MW CCGT Power Block and 9 MIGD RO desalination project at EGA – Jebel Ali being undertaken along with Mubadala is progressing well. On the aluminium downstream front, efforts are progressing on expanding operational specialized aluminium extrusion in the UAE.

The implementation of Dubai Municipality’s Waste-to-Energy Project at Warsan, Dubai – which is the largest Waste-to-Energy plant in the world – to treat 1.82 million tonnes of solid waste per year being undertaken along with other partners, is also on track.

Al Tayer said, “We strive to achieve the directives of our wise leadership to strengthen the UAE’s position in the global economy. Dubal Holding has a key role in supporting and diversifying the national economy and contributing to a brighter future in the UAE and the Emirate of Dubai. With 2.60 million tonnes of cast metal sales during the year, EGA remains the third largest producer of primary aluminium in the world outside China.

Al Tayer added, “EGA enjoys a global position in selling value added products or ‘premium aluminium’ with 87.40 percent of total sales to more than 400 customers from 50 countries. The company continues its endeavour to remain the world’s largest ‘premium aluminium’ producer by volume. Dubal Holding has also signed a Framework Agreement with EDF of France for possible collaboration in energy projects with special focus on UAE; as well as looking at a number of projects to support UAE localisation strategy and add value to the national economy”.

Abdulnasser bin Kalban, CEO of Dubal Holding, highlighted number of current projects and other which are under study in the field of energy, power and promoting Emiratisation in industrial sector.

Bin Kalban said that, “Dubal Holding is actively pursuing development of a UAE based integrated aluminium rolling facility (low CO2 produced aluminium), and a battery storage plant to support infrastructure and investment strategy for a potential future assembly line for an electrical vehicle facility to support the UAE Green Economy. Among the projects under study is an integrated scrap recycling facility and a facility for the production of cast aluminium wheels.”