EGA Restarts Alumina Production Months After Iranian Strike Hit Abu Dhabi

Emirates Global Aluminium has resumed alumina production at its Al Taweelah refinery in Abu Dhabi. The restart comes more than three months after Iranian attacks forced a full shutdown. Officials expect the refinery to reach half its production capacity within days.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of Emirates Global Aluminium, called the milestone a major step forward. He said the team's agility helped restore operations safely and quickly. He added that Al Taweelah remains central to EGA's global production goals.

The March 28 Attack

Iranian attacks struck Khalifa Economic Zone Abu Dhabi on March 28. The strike forced an emergency shutdown across Al Taweelah's entire complex. This included the smelter, cast house, power plant, refinery, and recycling plant. Two EGA employees were hospitalized and have since returned home to recover. EGA declared force majeure on certain products in April while assessing damage.

A Recovery That Keeps Beating Its Own Timeline

EGA has brought the site back online in careful stages since the attack. The cast house produced its first cast metal on May 4. Workers remelted frozen metal from damaged cells alongside output from restored ones. The recycling plant resumed cast metal production in early May as well.

Engineers restarted the smelter's first reduction cell on May 26. By early July, 89 of the smelter's 1,262 cells were running again. Anode removal is complete across all cells at this stage. Bath cleaning has reached roughly 90 percent completion across the site.

The refinery resumed hydrate production on June 24, ahead of this week's alumina restart. Hydrate serves as the intermediate material used to produce alumina. The refinery sits next to EGA's smelter and has operated since 2019. Alumina moves from the refinery to the smelter through an on site conveyor system.

What Still Lies Ahead

EGA still expects full recovery across Al Taweelah to take up to a year. The company notes that smelter output does not depend on full refinery capacity. This allows both recovery efforts to move forward at the same time.

EGA's Jebel Ali facility kept running at full capacity throughout the crisis. This gave the company a stable production base during the disruption. EGA says daily raw material deliveries now exceed what both sites require. On ground inventories across the UAE continue to grow as a result.

Wider Fallout From The Strait

The attack disrupted EGA's shipping routes well beyond Al Taweelah itself. Outbound shipments paused temporarily, building up finished metal inventory in the UAE. EGA has since set up alternative routes using ports outside the Strait of Hormuz. Full shipment recovery will likely depend on the strait reopening.

EGA's recycling plants in the United States and Germany kept running throughout the crisis. These facilities helped maintain supply continuity for customers during the disruption.