Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, has been named aluminium company of the year at the Platts Global Metals awards. The awards ceremony took place in London and brought together the global metals industry. EGA was recognised as ‘Industry Leader – Aluminium’.

Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at EGA, said: “It is pleasing to be recognised by our peers in this way. This award is for each of our 7,000 people whose work over decades has made EGA the industry leader it is today.”

EGA makes around 1 t every 25 t of aluminium produced in the world today and supplies to some 300 customers in 60 countries. Around 10% of EGA’s production is sold in the UAE to 26 downstream companies that use it to make products. The aluminium sector employs some 30,000 people, making it the largest employer amongst the UAE’s energy intensive industries.

EGA has been smelting aluminium in the UAE for almost four decades. Today EGA is expanding upstream and internationally into bauxite mining and alumina refining to create a vertically integrated national industrial champion.

EGA has built its success on a culture of continuous improvement. EGA has developed its own technology in the UAE for 25 years.

EGA’s home-grown technology is amongst the most efficient in the global aluminium industry, the company says. In 2016 EGA became the first UAE industrial company to license its own large-scale industrial technology internationally.

In 2017, EGA became the first Middle East headquartered company to join the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, a global programme to foster greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminium industry.