(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Qatar's aluminium industry remained resilient to the global economic downturn and dwindling oil prices.
The total annual production of aluminium in Qatar is continuously growing and expected to touch 640,000 tonnes in 2015, which is 9.4 percent higher than the installed capacity of Qatalum plant (585,000 tonnes), a senior official of Qatalum said yesterday.
"We were not affected by oil crisis, and our production level is still increasing. The annual production in 2014 reached 612,000 tonnes, about five percent higher than the full capacity," said Tom Petter Johansen (pictured), CEO of Qatalum.
Johansen, speaking to this newspaper on the sidelines of the first Gulf Aluminium Casthouse Conference, added: "It became possible by optimising our production processes and some minor modifications. This helped us achieve a significant improvement in cost efficiency, and we were able to reduce by $124 per tonne by the end of 2014."
Commenting about the oil crisis, he said that the demand of aluminium is not directly influenced by oil prices, and the cost of production of the material also does not get much influenced by it either, because the most important source of energy used in the aluminium industry today is coal, especially in China, which produces over 40 percent of the global output.
He added that lower energy prices, in contrary, increasing the competitiveness of global aluminium industry compared to other materials.
"We see that due to the automotive sector, with lower oil price, is booming resulting in higher consumption of aluminium as the industry is gradually switching from steel to aluminium," he said.
He noted that as a result of shale revolution, gas prices in the US are falling and making the US aluminium industry more price competitive. This may be a cause of concern in the short-term, but in the longer run, say 10 to 20 years, things will not remain the same.
"The aluminium industries in the Gulf region, which currently produces about 10 percent of the global output, will continue to remain a significant player in long term due to various positive factors, including lower energy costs," said the top official of Qatalum, organiser of the first 'GulfCast' conference.
The three-day event, which is set to conclude here today, was held under the patronage of H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, the Minister of Energy and Industry.
Day one of the programme opened with a welcome speech by Abdulrahman Al Shaibi, Chairman of Qatalum.
Attending were Tim Murray, CEO of Aluminium Bahrain (ALBA); Khalid Laram, Deputy CEO of Qatalum; Abdul Aziz Al Ageel, Secretary General, GOIC, and Abdulrahman Ali Al Abdulla, CEO, Muntajat.
They brought to the event expertise in environmental, technological and operational strategy that can be adopted by the aluminium industry in Qatar and the region. This technology transfer is intended to further enhance the already highly efficient smelters in the region to grow in productivity and gain a larger share of the global market.
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