L-R: The panel included Modar Mohamed Al Mekdad, GM for Gulf Extrusions; Phil Ellerby, MD for Rigidal Industries and Tarek S Ali, show director of Aluminium Dubai, organised by Reed Exhibitions.
All about aluminium The Big Project brings together three aluminium experts at the Media Rotana Dubai to discuss developments, opportunities and weaknesses in one of the GCC’s most lucrative industries
What are the key strengths in the aluminium industry in the Middle East region?
Modar Mohamed Al Mekdad (MM): Having cheap energy is one of the key elements in this industry. To produce one ton of aluminium you require 15,000kw of electricity, therefore it’s natural to be located here. Phil Ellerby (PE): We specialise in aluminium envelope solutions for buildings. We tend to be involved in the higher-end projects like airports and there are currently many airport contracts in the region. MM: In the last five years, the region has witnessed a boom in primary production. The downstream industry consumes 16% of this, with the rest exported. If you add value in terms of extrusion, flat roll products, building influx, finished
products add a lot to the region in terms of GDP. When we talk about US $55 billion investments and how much it can be inflated on the downstream side; up to multiples of 10 or even 20.
What are the potential weaknesses you have identified in the market?
MM: You need government involvement in projects. There are not many varieties of products, just rods and billets; downstream production requires investments in technology, R&D and establishing a technologybased industry rather than just converting from aluminium shapes. For this reason we diversified our operations into automotive, transportation, electrical and machine parts. As a result, I can say now that that decision helped us to overcome the recession.
PE: Sadly, we’re a little too remote from the primary producers of ingot billet and slab. For us to be able to utilise aluminium in our own envelope solutions there needs to be another interface, which is the hot rolling mill, producing coil. There is only one real producer in the Gulf states at the moment, which is based in Bahrain.
The panel:
Modar Mohamed Al Mekdad, general manager, Gulf Extrusions Phil Ellerby, managing director and owner, Rigidal Industries Tarek S Ali, show manager, Reed Exhibitions; organisers of Aluminium Dubai
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