Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), now amongst the 1 million-club metric tonnes smelters in the world, launched Phase IV of Project Titan with the objective to reduce cash-cost of $100 million by the end of 2020.

The company has achieved $102 million savings in Phase III of Project Titan, it announced.

Alba’s Project Titan – Phase IV is a 24-month programme and aims to achieve $40 million in 2019 and $60 million in 2020.

Commenting on the launch of Project Titan - Phase IV, Alba’s chief executive Officer Tim Murray said: “As Alba is progressing to be transformed to become the world’s largest aluminium smelter with a production of 1.5 million metric tonnes, we must challenge ourselves in every aspect to stay competitive and ahead of the curve especially amidst the weak sentiment hovering around LME price.”

Murray: staying competitive and ahead of the curve

Through Project Titan, Alba achieved benefits of $143 million in Phase I (2-year programme), $36 million in Phase II (2-year programme), $102 million in Phase III (1-year programme). Alba Operational Excellence team will conduct awareness sessions for Alba employees over the course of 1 week to highlight the key elements behind Phase IV of Project Titan.

Earlier, the company announced that it has successfully closed the final instalment of the second tranche with respect to the financing of its Line 6 Expansion Project, consisting of $136 million and €90 million ($102.2 million) from Export Credit Agency (ECA) supported-facilities by the end of 2018.

The proceeds from the ECA direct and guaranteed loans will be used to finance the provision of equipment in relation to Alba’s Line 6 Expansion Project, said a statement from Alba.

The facilities are made-up of $136 million Export Development Canada (EDC) supported-facility with a 10-year tenor wherein the principal amount is to be repaid over a 10-year period; and €90 million Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC)/Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (Nexi) supported-facilities comprising two contract loans, the first of which has a tenor of 10-year and a principal repayment period of 9.5 years, and the second contract loan having a tenor of 6 years with the principal amount to be repaid over a 5.5-year period.

Commenting on the milestone, Alba’s chairman of Board of Directors, Shaikh Daij Bin Salman Bin Daij Al Khalifa said: “This is another concrete highlight for us and a step closer towards transforming our vision into reality with the safe start-up of Line 6.”

“We are also truly thankful to receive further support from our banking partners in the ECA supported-facilities,” he added.

The Bahraini aluminium giant had successfully closed a $1.5 billion syndicated term-loan facility comprising two tranches: a conventional facility and an Islamic facility in October 2016; the first tranche of the Export Credit Financing of $700 million for Euler Hermes and SERV-covered facilities was concluded in July 2017; while the first part of second tranche of Export Credit Financing of €204.5 million comprising Bpifrance Assurance Export and the Euler Hermes-covered facilities was concluded in April last year, it added.

The company posted record sales volume of 1,012,548 tonnes last year compared with 978,195 tonnes in 2017, an increase of 3.5 per cent, while production stretched by 3 per cent to exceed 1,011,101 tonnes compared with 981,016 tonnes.