Emirates Global Aluminium's restoration of its Al Taweelah smelter has reached a 25 per cent milestone, with 315 of the facility's 1,262 reduction cells now restored and back in operation.
The company said the progress puts it on track to restore full production at the smelter in the first quarter of 2027, as work continues across all three potlines in parallel to accelerate the pace of reduction cell start-ups.
Al Taweelah sustained significant damage on March 28 when an Iranian attack on Khalifa Economic Zone Abu Dhabi led to an emergency shutdown of all EGA's facilities on the site.
To restore hot metal production, EGA is progressively repairing and restarting each reduction cell. Potline 1 was energised on May 26, followed by potline 3 on July 13 and potline 2 on August 3.
Following a restart, a reduction cell typically takes a week to stabilise and reach full production. Some of the hot metal produced is used to restart subsequent reduction cells, while the balance is delivered to EGA's Al Taweelah Casthouse to be cast into finished "premium aluminium" products.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said, "The restoration of production at Al Taweelah is the biggest challenge we have ever faced at EGA. This work is led by a dedicated team of experts, and we are applying decades of experience as well as innovative new methods to make safe progress as fast as possible. Our continued strong progress gives us confidence that we will reach full production in Q1 2027."
Around 1,000 people are currently working on the restoration of hot metal production at Al Taweelah smelter.
The Al Taweelah alumina refinery continues to produce at around 50 per cent capacity. EGA said the pace of further ramp-up in alumina production will be determined by supply chain considerations and the optimisation of its alumina sourcing strategy.
The continued recovery of aluminium production at Al Taweelah smelter is not dependent on the refinery returning to full capacity.
Meanwhile, production ramp-up at EGA's new Al Taweelah recycling plant continues on track, with full production expected by late Q4 2026.
Note: This article is published in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel and AL Circle.
