Emirates Global Aluminium buys German recycling business

Emirates Global Aluminium

• EGA to buy Leichtmetall Aluminium
• Plant creates 30,000 tonnes a year
• EGA building own recycling plant in UAE

Emirates Global Aluminium, the UAE’s biggest non-oil industrial company and one of the world’s largest aluminium producers, has signed a binding sale and purchase agreement to acquire a German aluminium recycling business.

The transaction to acquire 100 percent of Leichtmetall Aluminium Giesserei Hannover, a subsidiary of an investment fund managed by Quantum Capital Partners, is subject to regulatory approvals and expected to close during the first half of this year.

Leichtmetall produces hard alloys and larger-diameter billets – lengths of metal with square or circular cross-sections – that have high proportions of secondary aluminium.

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Secondary aluminium – recycled metal from scrap – accounts for around 80 percent of the input material.

It uses renewable energy to produce up to 30,000 tonnes per year of aluminium billets.

The transaction is EGA’s first substantial acquisition since the company was formed through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium a decade ago.

Abdulnasser bin Kalban, EGA’s chief executive, said the acquisition would provide a platform to develop a recycling business near its European customers.

EGA has committed to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Recycled aluminium requires 95 percent less energy than new metal, limiting the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from its creation.

EGA started construction of an aluminium recycling plant in the UAE last November.

• Emirates Global Aluminium profit falls with metal prices
• Work starts on UAE’s largest aluminium recycling plant
• Aluminium: waiting for the rise in demand

“Leichtmetall and the 170-thousand-tonnes-per-year aluminium recycling facility we are building in the UAE are together a strong combination which will be part of shaping the future EGA,” bin Kalban said.

Analysts expect worldwide demand for recycled aluminium will grow to 57 million tonnes per year in 2040, from 27 million tonnes per year in 2022.

EGA’s net profit fell 54 percent year on year to AED3.4 billion ($937 million), as benchmark prices for aluminium decreased.