Downstream aluminium sector in spotlight at Gulf Industry Fair 2015

The strength of the aluminium downstream sector and 'value-added' products will be showcased at the upcoming Gulf Industry Fair 2015, taking place from Tuesday to Thursday at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre.

Led by Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the world's leading aluminium smelters, and endorsed by the Gulf Aluminium Council (GAC), the Aluminium Zone at Gulf Industry Fair 2015 promises to reflect the sector's positive global demand outlook, which continues to drive opportunity for downstream suppliers such as Bahraini companies Garmco, Balexco, Midal Cables, Ameeri Industries and Turk Mechanical, who will all demonstrate their specialist capabilities at the show.

"GAC considers Gulf Industry Fair to be a key part of our ongoing strategy to highlight the GCC as an aluminium hub. The GCC's importance to the aluminium sector grows year on year with the expansion of smelters in the region and the resulting expansion of the downstream products and services sector," GAC secretary general Mahmood Daylami said.

'Value-added' products - billets, foundry alloys and rolling slabs - comprised approximately 66 per cent of Alba's total output as of the third quarter of 2014. The company continues to make progress on its Line 6 expansion project, which if approved will add approximately 400,000 tonnes to Alba's current annual capacity of 913,000 tonnes.

"Alba's focus over the past five years on value-added products is paying off as the premiums in the sector remain high and the trend is likely to continue," the company's chief marketing officer Jean Baptiste Lucas said.

"Alba is planning to deliver most of the new metal to Bahrain's downstream. We're assuming that the majority of the additional liquid metal will be sold locally to existing and new customers."

Bahrain-based companies are flexing their muscles on the global aluminium market. Gulf Industry Fair exhibitors like Midal Cables, for example, started producing aluminium, alloy rods and conductors in Australia last year in joint venture with Australia's Power Grid Cables. This complements the 30,000 tonnes per year plant the company recently started in Turkey, producing overhead line transmission and distribution conductors.

Meanwhile Alba's slab family of value-added products was supplied to just one customer - Bahrain's Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mills (Garmco), one of the Middle East's largest downstream aluminium facilities for rolling, cutting and fabricating aluminium with an annual production capacity of 165,000 tonnes exported to more than 2,000 customers in more than 45 countries.

Bahrain Aluminium Extrusion Company (Balexco), another exhibitor at Gulf Industry Fair, has an outstanding track record in manufacturing extrusions. Its current production capacity now exceeds a record 33,000 metric tonnes.

"The aluminium sector is the key industrial growth driver in the region. We consider the aluminium showcase during Gulf Industry Fair as the optimum way to promote the opportunities for aluminium-based industrial development. The strategic support of Alba and the participation of Balexco, Midal Cables and Garmco, among many other companies, show the value that the Aluminium Village at Gulf Industry Fair is given by the sector," Jubran Abdulrahman, managing director of Hilal Conferences & Exhibitions (HCE), the organisers of Gulf Industry Fair, said.

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