EGA advances Al Taweelah restart

Smelter restoration moves forward

EGA said repairs to damaged infrastructure have progressed while natural gas and electricity availability is expected to increase alongside the restart schedule.

The company said all 1,262 reduction cells at the Al Taweelah smelter must return to operation before the smelter reaches production levels seen before the attack. Reduction cells, or “pots”, are containers where alumina is reduced into liquid aluminum.

According to EGA, anode removal has been completed across all reduction cells. Carbon anodes deliver the electrical current used to reduce alumina while combining with oxygen released during the electrolytic process.

Bath cleaning has reached about 90% completion. Frozen metal has been removed from more than 20% of the cells. Bath cleaning removes frozen electrolyte that remains after an anode is removed.

The first reduction cell resumed operation on May 26. As of July 2, EGA has restarted 89 reduction cells. Hot metal production will increase as additional cells return to service and could require up to one year to return to pre-incident production levels.

Meanwhile, the Al Taweelah casthouse produced its first cast metal on May 4 using remelted metal recovered during restoration. The recycling plant resumed commissioning during April and restarted recycled cast metal production in early May.

EGA also said alumina production from the Al Taweelah refinery is expected early in the third quarter, although the company said the smelter restart doesn’t depend on the refinery reaching full production.

Product mix implications

The recovery carries different implications across the aluminum supply chain because EGA’s two United Arab Emirates (UAE) smelters have overlapping product portfolios but different production mixes.

Al Taweelah is EGA’s larger primary aluminum operation. Both Al Taweelah and Jebel Ali produce significant quantities of ingot, billet and primary foundry alloys.

Value-added products accounted for 81% of total metal sales during 2025, according to EGA.

That said, CRU data identifies Al Taweelah as EGA’s only slab-producing site. The slab is primarily for packaging applications, including can body stock, and lithographic plate production.

Meanwhile, production of high-purity aluminum used in aerospace and electronics applications has come from Jebel Ali, which is capable of making aluminum with purity approaching 99.96%.

Jebel Ali is operating at full capacity with average daily inbound deliveries of raw materials for the complex exceeding the site’s requirement to maintain metal production, according to the company.

As a result, any near-term disruption to high-purity aluminum availability would more likely reflect shipping constraints over recent months than production capacity.

US imports before the conflict

The US relies on the UAE as one of its principal overseas suppliers of primary aluminum, particularly value-added products.

According to Global Trade Tracker data, about 98% of US aluminum imports from the UAE during 2025 consisted of unwrought aluminum products. Unwrought aluminum alloy accounted for roughly 69% of total imports, while unwrought unalloyed aluminum represented about 29%.

Billet comprised more than half of all US aluminum imports from the UAE during 2025. Primary foundry alloy accounted for about 12%.

Imports of unwrought unalloyed aluminum with purity greater than 99.9% represented slightly more than 6% of total imports. Although that share seems modest, it totaled more than 34,000 metric tons during the year. The volume approaches the approximately 41,000 metric tons of annual high-purity aluminum capacity at Arconic’s Davenport facility following the recent expansion that double the plant’s output capacity.

The US high-purity aluminum market has tightened in recent years following the prolonged idling and subsequent sale of Century Aluminum’s Hawesville smelter, previously one of the country’s largest commercial primary aluminum smelters capable of producing high-purity metal.

Trade flow trends

Trade patterns had already begun shifting before the conflict before the March attack on the Al Taweelah complex.

During the first quarter of 2026, US aluminum imports from the UAE increased 28% from the same period in 2025, according to Global Trade Tracker data.

The product mix also changed. Unwrought alloyed aluminum accounted for about 56% of imports during the quarter, while unwrought unalloyed aluminum increased to about 42%. That compares with around 69% unwrought alloyed aluminum and 28% of unwrought unalloyed aluminum in Q1 2025.

Yet, from January to March, imports of unwrought unalloyed aluminum nearly doubled from the prior year. Meanwhile, imports of unwrought alloyed aluminum decreased by more than 22%, largely because billet shipments declined. Primary foundry alloy imports posted the largest year-over-year percentage decline with the unwrought alloy category.

After the regional conflict began, overall imports fell sharply.

Global Trade Tracker data showed April US aluminum imports from the UAE decreased 52% year over year.

Logistics remain a limiting factor

EGA said it entered the conflict with substantial inventories already stored overseas and additional material in transit, allowing shipments to continue for some customers.

However, the company said the effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz has halted new shipments through that passage.

The company established alternative export routes through ports outside the strait. EGA said it is selling more metal than Jebel Ali is producing as inventories accumulated during the disruption continue to decline.

EGA typically makes more than 10,000 shipments annually using more than 100,000 containers.

A return to shipment levels seen before the conflict will depend on reopening the Strait of Hormuz under current conditions, while restoration work at Al Taweelah continues, it said.

EGA also said its recycling plants in the US and Germany have continued operating throughout 2026.