United Arab Emirates: The Women’s Network of Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, hosted an International Women’s Day summit to discuss the progress of gender diversity in industry at EGA’s headquarters in Al Taweelah.
The event brought together women from leading organisations in the UAE including ADNOC, Ardian Limited, CCI France UAE, EDF Energy, ENOC, Ducab, Mastercard, Miral, MENALAC, Nama Women Advancement, Siemens, Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi and WiSER.
The group discussed collaboration opportunities to advocate for the empowerment of women in the workplace in line with this year’s International Women’s Day theme, ‘Inspire Inclusion’.
EGA employs more than 470 women in the UAE, including 160 women in operations. EGA has set goals to increase the proportion of women in supervisory positions to 25 per cent by 2025, compared to over 22 per cent at the end of 2023, and 15 per cent of all positions by 2026.
The majority of EGA’s current graduate trainees are women. Some 20 per cent of participants in EGA’s National Training programmes, which prepare high school leavers for technical and administrative roles, are women just over a year after the company opened these programmes to women for the first time.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: “Promoting gender diversity is a priority for EGA and is part of our bold aspiration to become a talent driven organisation. We have made significant progress but there is still more to do. Our commitment to achieving our targets will contribute to the UAE’s long-standing national objectives to increase the participation of women in the economy and society.”
Last year, EGA launched the Challenger Programme in partnership with Aurora50, which brings together leading industrial companies to make quicker progress on promoting gender diversity by addressing shared practical challenges.
EGA is a signatory to the United Nations’ Women’s Empowerment Principles and committed to promoting gender diversity throughout its business as well as advocating for women’s role in industry and society.
The EGA Women’s Network was launched in 2020, and provides women at all levels of the company a platform for mutual professional development support.
About EGAP:
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 bauxite mining to the production of cast primary aluminium. EGA operates aluminium smelters in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, an alumina refinery in Al Taweelah and a bauxite mine and associated export facilities in the Republic of Guinea.
EGA’s aluminium is the second largest made-in-the UAE export after oil and gas. In 2023, EGA sold 2.75 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 2023, value-added products accounted for 76 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 26 downstream aluminium companies that make products with EGA’s aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the UAE supports almost 48,000 jobs. EGA itself employs around 6,800 of these people including more than 1,200 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. EGA’s bauxite mining subsidiary, Guinea Alumina Corporation, achieved the first ASI certification in Guinea in 2023. Al Taweelah alumina refinery was certified later in 2023, with the result that EGA now has all of its global operations certified to the aluminium industry’s internationally recognised standard for environmental and social performance and governance.
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.
EGA’s Jebel Ali aluminium smelter began production as DUBAL in 1979. At almost five square kilometres, this site is five times bigger than Dubai Mall.
EMAL started production in 2009 and its Al Taweelah aluminium smelter was the largest single-site aluminium smelter in the world when completed. EGA’s Al Taweelah site is five times bigger than Al Maryah Island at six square kilometres.
EGA has its own power stations at both sites, producing electricity to meet its needs. EGA’s electricity generation capacity is 6,474 megawatts, making EGA the third largest electricity generator in the UAE after the Dubai and Abu Dhabi utilities. EGA also produces water through desalination units at its power plants.
EGA began production at Al Taweelah alumina refinery in April 2019. EGA’s alumina refinery is the first in the UAE and only the second in the Middle East. The project reduces the UAE’s dependence on imported alumina and supplies over 48 per cent of EGA’s needs.
Bauxite exports from Guinea Alumina Corporation, EGA’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Guinea, began in August 2019. The GAC project was one of the largest greenfield investments in Guinea in over 40 years.
