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Ducab set to double aluminium production capacity

11 September 2024

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The UAE’s Ducab Group has announced that its subsidiary, Ducab Metals Business, will double its output of aluminium products from 55,000 tonnes a year (t/y) to 110,000 t/y. The company’s leadership said the investment in increasing production capacity will help meet rising demand for aluminium products at home and overseas.

Ducab Metals Business will build the new aluminium products facility in Khalifa Economic Zone Abu Dhabi (Kezad), where it already owns a 50,000-square-metre facility. In May, the firm signed a 50-year land lease agreement with Kezad to acquire a 51,015 sq m plot, on which it will build the new plant.

Ducab Metals Business announced doubling its aluminium production capacity on 5 September at a conference in Abu Dhabi titled ‘Ducab Metals Business Expansion Forum: Advancing capacity, driving innovation’, held in partnership with MEED.

Ducab business expansion

Ducab Group, which is equally-owned by the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) and Abu Dhabi’s ADQ, has been pursuing an expansion strategy that has taken it to new markets and opened up new industrial sectors, according to Mohammad Almutawa, CEO of Ducab Group.

Ducab is a key stakeholder in the UAE’s Operation 300bn, a blueprint launched by the Ministry of Industry & Advanced Technology (MoIAT) in 2021. It aims to raise the contribution of the country’s industrial, mainly non-oil, sector to the national GDP to AED300bn ($81.7bn) by 2031.

Almutawa said in his opening remarks at the forum that Ducab Group has expanded its business footprint and portfolio since adopting a growth strategy some five years ago. The company has grown its presence to 75 countries and today caters to new industries such as medical and automotive.

Ducab Group’s metal usage stands at 300,000 t/y, while it has registered a year-on-year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of 31%, the CEO revealed.

Entities such as the MoIAT, Kezad, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) and Abu Dhabi Investment Office (Adio) have been key partners in its growth journey, Almutawa stated.

Focus on growth

According to the firm's CEO, Mohamed Al-Ahmedi, Ducab Metals Business has “achieved milestones” since its parent entity implemented the growth strategy between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020.

Apart from launching the project to double aluminium product output capacity, those milestones include expanding Ducab Metals Business’ footprint to 75 countries, acquiring GIC Magnet, a Dubai-based supplier of paper-insulated aluminium strips, enhancing its circular economy credentials, and making an investment in green aluminium in April.

These facts were presented by Al-Ahmedi during a panel discussion held at the conference in Abu Dhabi, moderated by Ed James, head of content and research – MEA at MEED/GlobalData. The other participants in the panel were Mansoor Al-Marar, vice president of Industrial Business Development at Kezad Group, Massimo Falcioni, chief competitiveness officer of Adio, and Abdullah Ghazi Al-Mahri, director of investments and partnerships at MoIAT.

“More than 95% of the aluminium we produce is exported to 75 countries,” Al-Ahmedi said, adding that the “raw material, producers and logistics facilities put together by Kezad, all in one place, facilitates exports”.

The new aluminium products plant is located within a kilometre of EGA's main smelter in Kezad, the primary source of aluminium feedstock, the Ducab Metals Business CEO said. The new facility is expected to be commissioned by the end of this year and start production in 2025.

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Indrajit Sen

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