Emirates Aluminium (Emal) has installed the first structural steel for the potrooms of the world’s largest, single-site aluminium smelter complex currently under construction in Al Taweelah, Abu Dhabi.

When completed, the Emal potrooms will comprise 32,000 tonnes of steel, supplied by Saudi Arabian company Hidada and installed by their UAE subcontractor Amana.
Youssef Bastaki, Emal project director, and Duncan Hedditch, the company’s CEO, oversaw the installation.
The Emal smelter is being built in two phases and when completed will produce 1.4 million tonnes of aluminium annually.
Emal, a joint venture between Dubai Aluminium Company Limited (Dubal) and Mubadala Development Company (Mubadala), was established in February 2007 to construct what will become the world’s largest single-site aluminium smelter complex. 
The project will be built in two phases and utilise Emirati-developed technology. At the end of phase one in 2010, production will be 700,000 tonnes of aluminium per annum, rising to 1.4 million tonnes at the end of Phase 2.
The aluminium complex is spread across a 6 sq km site in the Khalifa Port Industrial Zone in Taweelah, half way between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
It will produce primary aluminium with a product mix of sow, standard ingot, billet and sheet ingot.
Meanwhile, as Phase 1 progresses towards its culmination in the first quarter of 2010, a pre-feasibility study for Phase 2 is underway.
Canada’s SNC Lavalin and Australia’s WorleyParsons, the two companies awarded the engineering, procurement and construction management contract to build the first phase of the smelter, are conducting the pre-feasibility study which Hedditch expects to be completed in the first half of 2009.
“The feasibility study will assist us in firming up details related to timing.  The scale of projects such as the Emal smelter are 50-year developments, allowing us to take a long-term view on prices and this means the current value of commodities will not have any effect on the timeline of the Emal smelter complex,” Hedditch said.
Being the largest industrial project in the UAE outside the oil and gas industry, the project will encourage economic diversification, creating downstream opportunities.  This development will benefit the UAE economy, employing more than 14,000 local and international contractors/staff during construction and provide 1,800 people direct employment during operations.
“Emal adheres to strict environmental standards set by the Abu Dhabi Environmental Agency, with state-of the-art emission- control equipment including sulphur-dioxide scrubbers, the latest potroom gas treatment technology, the best-available gas turbine systems, and cooling towers to eliminate thermal stress on local marine life,” an Emal statement said.