Middle East's largest aluminum company: Severely damaged main smelters after Iran missile and drone attacks

Cailian Press, March 29 (Editor: Shi Zhengcheng) As the conflict between the U.S., Israel, and Iran continues to drag on, the focus of capital markets has also shifted—from disruptions to shipping—to whether the region’s industrial output can last until the war ends.

Late Saturday night Beijing time, the Middle East’s largest aluminum producer, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), released an announcement saying that earlier that day, its Tawira production facility in the Khalifa Economic Zone in Abu Dhabi was attacked by Iranian missiles and drones, and suffered serious damage.

(Source: the company’s official website)
As background, on Friday local time, as two large Iranian steel plants and supporting power facilities, along with a “yellow cake” facility, were targeted, Iran said it would list six steel plants in Israel and industrial facilities in five countries in the region as new retaliation targets, and warned that “industrial enterprises and heavy industry practitioners in the region associated with the U.S. and Israel should leave their workplaces immediately to avoid endangering life and safety.”

Emirates Global Aluminium said that several employees were injured in the attack, and that all injured personnel are not in danger of life. Assessments of damage to the facilities are still underway.

Earlier on Saturday, the Abu Dhabi media office disclosed that three fires were sparked near the Khalifa Economic Zone by ballistic missile debris, injuring six people.

Emirates Global Aluminium is one of the largest aluminum producers in the Middle East and an important supplier to global markets. The Middle East accounts for about 9% of the global aluminum market share (it is 8% if Iran is not included).

The company’s official website shows that for every 25 tons of aluminum produced globally, 1 ton comes from Emirates Global Aluminium. That corresponds to 4% of global capacity.

The facilities targeted in this attack include a smelter plant producing 1.6 million tons of casting aluminum in 2025, as well as a refinery plant that supplies alumina to the smelter plant (alumina is the metal’s main raw material).

It is still unclear how this attack will affect capacity. The company has only said that, when Israel and the U.S. began fighting Iran last month, it already had a substantial volume of metal inventories in the seas and overseas warehouses, and it is now using those overseas inventories to meet customer demand.

In addition to Emirates Global Aluminium, another major Middle East aluminum producer, Bahrain Aluminium (Alba), also announced earlier this month that it would reduce output because cargoes could not transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Norway’s Hydro’s Qatalum aluminum smelter in Qatar also lowered production.