The Middle East's largest aluminum company reported that after an attack on its factory, it experienced an "out-of-control shutdown" and has begun selling aluminum raw materials.

Does AI inquiry · Does Emirates Global Aluminium’s sale of raw materials hint at a long-term production halt?

Cailian Press, April 1 (Editor: Shi Zhengcheng) The latest market news reports that the Taweelah(Al Taweelah) smelter under Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the largest aluminum producer in the Middle East, was attacked by Iranian missiles and drones last weekend. As a result, it has been forced to stop operations due to a “runaway shutdown” of its smelting equipment.

As background, late Saturday night Beijing time, Emirates Global Aluminium issued an announcement stating that earlier that day, its Taweelah production base in the Khalifa Economic Zone of Abu Dhabi was attacked by Iranian missiles and drones and suffered severe damage.

Although it has not publicly disclosed the progress of its “damage assessment” since then, international aluminum prices have continued to rise since last weekend and are already approaching the highs seen since 2022. In addition to Emirates Global Aluminium, Bahrain Aluminum, another major aluminum producer in the region, has also confirmed that facilities under it were attacked over the weekend. Both plants are among the world’s largest aluminum plants, and in 2025 their output will both reach 1.6 million tons.

On Wednesday evening, media outlets citing insiders reported that the Taweelah smelter in the suburbs of Abu Dhabi caused a power outage when it was attacked last week, and equipment known as “potlines” was forced into an uncontrolled shutdown, causing metal to solidify inside the smelting circuit and dealing severe damage to production and operations.**

For this situation, analyst Bernard Dahdah of Natixis SA made a hypothesis in a recent report, saying that the damage caused by metal solidification in the smelting process might take at least a year to repair. This could cause the aluminum market to shift next year from a supply surplus of 200,000 tons to an approximately 1.3 million ton supply shortage.

As supporting evidence for this intelligence, earlier on Wednesday, there were reports that Emirates Global Aluminium had started selling large quantities of alumina on the market, which is a key raw material for producing aluminum.

It is understood that Emirates Global Aluminium has proposed this week to sell several batches of alumina expected to be shipped between 4 and 6 months. The aluminum supply chain can be described simply as extracting bauxite first, then refining it into alumina, and finally smelting it into finished metal.

Emirates Global Aluminium itself can produce alumina, and it usually also purchases large quantities of this raw material to supply the Taweelah smelter in the suburbs of Abu Dhabi and a second smelter in Dubai.

(Cailian Press Shi Zhengcheng)