Abu Dhabi: Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) is expected to build a $3 billion alumina refinery that has targets for a production rate of four million tonnes annually in Abu Dhabi, the company’s chief executive officer, Abdullah Kalban, announced on Tuesday.

The refinery is set for operations towards the end of 2017, and will be used to produce primary aluminium in order for the UAE to secure its own raw materials.

Kalban was speaking on the sidelines of the 29th International Aluminium Conference, which kicked off in the capital on Tuesday during which he said that global demand growth in the industry is expected to sustain at 5.8 per cent per annum till 2020.

Also among the speakers was Isa Al Ansari, CEO of Aluminium Bahrain, who cited the lack of raw materials as one of the main challenges that the industry faces.

“Right now, we rely on Kuwait and China for the majority of our requirement, so raw materials like alumina [are] a challenge. With the expansion [of the industry] in the region, I don’t think there would be any deficits,” Al Ansari told Gulf News.

He added that GCC countries present the largest suppliers in the industry, while demand is growing from North America and the Middle East particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The conference was also attended by the UAE’s Ministry of Energy, Suhail Al Mazroui, who said that EGA’s contribution to the UAE’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is forecast to reach nearly $6 billion by 2018.

“The company already employs over 7,000 people, with an additional 2,000 jobs to be created by the end of this decade. With the development of projects such as the Kizad industrial complex, the downstream aluminium cluster will also grow, creating an estimated 25,000 jobs by 2020,” the minister said.

EGA, the world’s fifth-largest aluminium company with an enterprise value of nearly $15 billion, was formed by the merger last year of Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Aluminium (Emal) and Dubai Aluminium (Dubal). With the merge, EGA currently has a production capacity of 2.4 million tonnes per year – 90 per cent of which is exported to 350 customers in around 68 countries.