Emirates Global Aluminium says full production recovery from attack could take a year

April 3 (Reuters) - Emirates Global Aluminium said fully restoring primary aluminium production at its Al Taweelah smelter in the UAE that was hit by an Iranian attack late last month could take up to a year.

The facilities at Al Taweelah were fully evacuated and entered an emergency shutdown after the March 28 attacks on the Khalifa Economic Zone in Abu Dhabi, the company said in a statement.

"To resume operations at the smelter, EGA must repair infrastructure damage and progressively restore each of the reduction cells," EGA said.

"Early indications are that a complete restoration of primary aluminium production could take up to 12 months."

SOME OPERATIONS

EGA said the Al Taweelah refinery, which produces alumina, the raw ingredient of aluminium, and the Al Taweelah recycling plant could restart some production earlier, "depending on the final assessment of site damage".

Concerns about the impact on supply of the conflict in the Middle East led to the biggest monthly rise in nearly two years in the price of aluminium in March.

Benchmark three-month aluminium CMAL3 on the London Metal Exchange gained 10.4% over the course of the month and touched its highest in nearly four years - $3,546.50 per metric ton - on March 12.

Aluminium producers in the Gulf, which typically account for around 9% of global supply, have been unable to ship metal to world markets via their normal channels since the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz shipping channel that followed U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran that began on February 28.

EGA's Al Taweelah aluminium smelter produced 1.6 million tons of cast metal in 2025.

The company also has an adjacent alumina refinery at Al Taweelah, which last year produced 2.4 million tons of the aluminium raw material.