Aluminium: Endless possibilities

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The biggest aluminium extruded supporting profile in Asia and Africa was manufactured by Gulf Extrusions.

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The Gulf Extrusions plant is designed to produce aluminium sections in mill, silver and colour anodised (spectrum colours), gold dyed and powder coated finishes.

As an extraordinarily versatile material, aluminium can take on many forms and is available in a variety of surface finishes, which makes it a natural fit for the construction industry, reports Shikha Mishra.

The world demand of aluminium is expected to reach 46 million tonnes by 2011 and 55 million tonnes by 2015. These figures indicate a long-term need for aluminium.

The GCC, along with China and Russia, are stepping up to the plate, with these regions slated to becoming centers of growth within the aluminium industry in the coming years.

Currently the region's two operating smelters are Dubai Aluminum (Dubal), which produces about 900,000 tonnes of aluminum a year, and Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), with a capacity of 860,000 tonnes. Another 11 smelters are either under construction in the planning stages in the Gulf.

Emirates Aluminium, or Emal, a joint venture between Dubal and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Development Company, is building a 1.4 million tonne capacity smelter in Abu Dhabi.

The first phase of Emal is expected to be operational in 2010 and once the project is complete it will be the world's largest, single-site aluminium production facility.

Emal International has launched a similar capacity project in Saudi Arabia, while Saudi mining firm Ma'aden has its own smelter project.

In Oman, production at the 350,000-tonne Sohar Aluminium plant began this year. Currently, the GCC region accounts for 4% of global aluminium production and the share is expected to go up to 10% by 2010.

"Investments in the Gulf aluminium industry have jumped to US$8 billion (AED 29.3 billion)," says Reed Exhibitions Middle East's group exhibition director, Amanda Westerman, organisers of the Aluminium Dubai exhibition to be held in March 2009.

Recycling

According to statistics available from Dubal, nearly three-quarters of all aluminium ever made remains in use today, representing a growing "energy and resource bank" as the metal can be reused endlessly.

Aluminium in general has always been recycled at a higher rate than most other raw materials. Given the necessary infrastructure, it is possible to recycle all aluminium construction industry applications.

There is a relatively high level of scrap aluminium available and it has a high scrap value which can contribute significantly towards covering demolition costs. The infrastructure required for the collection of scrap metals is already well-established and will continue to grow on its own economic merit as it has done in the past to provide an increasingly efficient recycling system.

Quality concerns

In studies carried out by Jebel Ali based Gulf Extrusions, one of the region's largest extrusion plants, it was found that the quality of aluminium profiles used in the GCC housing projects was a cause for concern.

These independent tests showed various samples from external manufacturers that had failed to conform to requisite Aluminium Association (AA) alloy specifications.

"The problem of sub-standard aluminium profiles being used in building projects has reduced to some extent. But, in a price driven market such as the UAE, there will always be a problem with the quality of construction as developers are looking at materials that are fairly cheap.

Nonetheless, municipalities are stepping up, and stricter quality checks are being put in place," says Gulf Extrusions's director of sales and marketing, Robert Holtkamp.

Setting records

In line with Dubai's quest for setting construction-related world records, Gulf Extrusions, produced the biggest aluminium extruded supporting profile in Asia and Africa earlier this month. The specially designed profile is made of two pieces and weighs 30kg/m with a width of 1,000 mm with a total length of 80 cms.

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