Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates,July 2026: Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, has received the AI Vision and Strategy Award at the 2026 Manufacturing Leadership Awards in the United States.
The award recognises EGA’s innovative implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies and future-focused digital and AI-powered use cases. EGA’s ongoing digital transformation leverages advanced digital capabilities to transform operations, processes and systems.
Hosted annually by the Manufacturing Leadership Council, part of the US-based National Association of Manufacturers, the Manufacturing Leadership Awards is an awards platform that recognises organisations driving the future global manufacturing through operational excellence and innovation.
EGA’s digital transformation programme was launched in 2021 and has delivered significant improvements. Industry 4.0 at EGA has delivered some $100 million in financial impact through the implementation of more than 80 Industry 4.0 use cases, ranging from using artificial intelligence vision to quality check carbon anode production in real-time, to predictive tools for market movements in key commodities.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer at Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “This award recognises the progress we have made in embedding digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence across our operations to deliver measurable improvements in safety, performance, and efficiency. By combining world-class industrial expertise with advanced digital capabilities, we are strengthening EGA’s position as the technology provider of choice for the global aluminium industry while supporting the UAE’s ambitions to lead in Industry 4.0 and artificial intelligence.”
EGA’s ongoing digital transformation is a key part of EGA’s drive to innovate the future of aluminium production and be the technology provider of choice for the global aluminium industry.
In 2024, EGA introduced the region’s first 100 per cent renewable energy powered industrial data centres at its Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah sites and launched of one of the first digital manufacturing platforms in the region with Microsoft to unlock additional value through large-scale Industry 4.0 applications.
Last year, EGA was named an Industry 4.0 global lighthouse by the World Economic Forum, the first industrial company in the UAE and the first aluminium company in the world to achieve this designation.
About EGA:
Since 1975, when it was founded as Dubai Aluminium by His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum,
Emirates Global Aluminium has been innovating aluminium to make modern life possible.
Today EGA is the world’s biggest ‘premium aluminium’ producer and the largest industrial company in the United
Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry.
EGA is equally-owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of
Dubai. It is the largest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.
EGA is an integrated aluminium producer, with operations from alumina refining to the production of cast primary
aluminium and recycling. EGA operates aluminium smelters in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah in the United Arab
Emirates, an alumina refinery in Al Taweelah, an aluminium recycling plant in Al Taweelah, a speciality foundry in
high strength recycled aluminium in Germany, and a recycling plant in the United States.
EGA’s aluminium is the second largest made-in-the UAE export after oil and gas. In 2025, EGA sold 2.84 million
tonnes of cast metal. EGA is the only UAE producer and makes the UAE the fifth largest aluminium producing
nation in the world.
EGA has more than 400 customers in over 50 countries. In 2025, value-added products accounted for 81 per
cent of EGA’s cast metal sales.
EGA’s aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, packaging, aerospace and electronics
industries.
Around 10 per cent of EGA’s aluminium production is sold in the UAE to around 20 downstream aluminium
companies that make products with EGA’s aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the UAE
supports more than 56,000 jobs. EGA itself employs over 7,000 of these people including more than 1,300 UAE
Nationals.
EGA has focused on technology development for over 30 years. EGA has used its own technology for every
smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines. In 2016 EGA became the first
UAE industrial company to licence its core industrial process technology internationally.
As a corporate citizen of the UAE, EGA aspires in all its operations to be measured amongst the world’s leading
metals and mining companies in meeting its environmental and social responsibilities. In 2017, EGA became the
first Middle East headquartered company to join the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, a global programme to
foster greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminium industry. In 2019, EGA’s Al Taweelah site became
the first in the Middle East to receive certification from ASI for its sustainability practices and performance. EGA’s
Jebel Ali site was certified in 2021. Al Taweelah alumina refinery was certified later in 2023. EGA’s German
speciality foundry was certified in 2023, before its acquisition by EGA.
In 2021, EGA began production of CelestiAL solar aluminium, produced with solar power from the Mohammed
Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park on the outskirts of Dubai. EGA is the first company in the world to make
aluminium commercially using the power of the sun.
EGA was formed in 2014 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium.
