Pittsburgh-based Alcoa, a bauxite, alumina and aluminum products provider, recently signed an eight-year agreement to supply Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), an integrated aluminum producer, with smelter grade alumina.
Under the agreement, EGA will have volume options allowing it to procure as much as 15.6 million metric tons of alumina from Western Australia. This will represent a significant portion of Alcoa’s annual third-party alumina sales, and Alcoa will become the company’s largest third-party supplier of alumina.
“Alcoa operates the world’s largest third-party alumina business with low-carbon processes, and we’re proud to be recognized with this significant additional volume from EGA as a leading global producer,” Alcoa President and CEO Roy Harvey said. “The agreement is the largest alumina supply contract ever signed between Alcoa and EGA, and it will strengthen the long-term supply relationship between our two companies.”
The agreement also includes options for EGA to choose Alcoa’s low-carbon EcoSource alumina. EcoSource is produced with no more than 0.6 tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per ton of alumina which is half the industry’s average of 1.2 tons.
The agreement goes into effect next year.
EGA operates smelters in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, an alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi, and a bauxite mine in the Republic of Guinea.