UAE Eships bags alumina transport contract from EMAL

Wednesday, 21 Oct 2009

Emirates Ship Investment Company has won a contract to transport approximately 1 million tonnes of alumina annually to Emirates Aluminium which is building USD 5.7 billion aluminum smelter in Abu Dhabi.

The 3 year contract was awarded after a competitive tender involving over 15 shipping companies and will start 2010.

EMAL's smelter at Al Taweelah is scheduled to produce its first high grade semi finished aluminum products in April 2010 and will be in full operation January 2011.

Eships will transport the alumina in lots of 60,000 tonnes in modern Panamax ships the largest ships able to pass through the Panama Canal. The ships will initially unload at Jebel Ali port of Dubai but will switch to Khalifa Port in Taweelah when ready.

Mr Scott Jones CEO of Eships said that "This contract is an important step in the growth strategy for Eships. It gives us another opportunity to use our dry bulk shipping expertise to provide a major UAE company with first class service, while providing us with a springboard to grow our fleet. We are pleased to be contributing to a significant UAE diversification project.”

By building the world's largest single site aluminum smelter project EMAL is playing a key role in the UAE's strategy to diversify its economy. Annual global demand for aluminum used widely in cars, aircraft, packaging and construction is forecast to grow by about a fifth to reach 60 million tonnes within a decade.