Emirates Global Aluminium

The UAE’s biggest industrial champion outside oil and gas — and a global metals powerhouse.

UAE Today Editorial  |  Business & Industry

From the smartphones in our pockets to the cars we drive and the buildings we live in, aluminium quietly shapes modern life — and much of it is made in the UAE. Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) is the world’s largest ‘premium aluminium’ producer and the biggest industrial company in the country outside oil and gas. Understanding EGA reveals how the UAE transformed itself from having no aluminium industry into one of the world’s leading producers of the metal of the future.

A Union of Two Champions

EGA was created in 2013 through the merger of two pioneering companies: Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL), founded in the 1970s, and Emirates Aluminium (EMAL), established in Abu Dhabi in 2007. This landmark union combined the aluminium interests of Dubai and Abu Dhabi into a single, globally competitive giant. Today EGA is equally owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai, making it the largest company jointly owned by the two emirates.

A Global Production Powerhouse

EGA’s scale is staggering. Its two vast smelters — at Jebel Ali in Dubai and Al Taweelah in Abu Dhabi — rank among the largest single-site aluminium operations on Earth, with a combined capacity of around 2.4 million tonnes a year. The company produces roughly four per cent of the world’s aluminium, or about one in every 25 tonnes made globally, and almost half of all aluminium produced in the Gulf, connecting the UAE to hundreds of industrial customers worldwide.

Beyond the smelters.  —  In recent years EGA has expanded across the entire aluminium value chain. Its Al Taweelah alumina refinery, the first in the UAE, reduces reliance on imported raw materials, while its wholly owned bauxite mine in the Republic of Guinea secures the ore at the very start of the process. The group also operates a speciality foundry in Germany and an aluminium recycling plant in the United States, giving it a truly global footprint.

Homegrown Technology and Innovation

A key source of EGA’s strength is its homegrown expertise. The company has developed its own aluminium smelting technology in the UAE for more than 25 years, using it in every expansion since the 1990s. In a landmark achievement, EGA became the first UAE industrial company to license its core process technology internationally — turning Emirati engineering know-how into an export in its own right.

Sustainability and the Future

As a major industrial producer, EGA has placed sustainability at the centre of its strategy. It became one of the first companies in the world to produce aluminium using solar power, and has committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050. Combined with strong support for local suppliers and the development of Emirati talent, these efforts position EGA not just as an industrial giant, but as a responsible one — a lasting symbol of the UAE’s successful drive to diversify its economy beyond oil.

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