The Middle East's largest aluminum company confirms market speculation: Abu Dhabi factory restart may take up to a year

Late Friday night Beijing time, the Middle East’s largest aluminum producer, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), issued an announcement confirming that the Tawila production facility that was attacked last weekend may take up to a year to fully restore aluminum production capacity.

(Source: Emirates Global Aluminium)

Located on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, the Tawila production facility is one of the world’s largest aluminum plants. In 2025, it produced 1.6 million tons of ingots. In addition to its smelters and casting plants, the production facility also includes a power plant, an alumina refining plant, and a recycling plant. The company said that, all personnel have been evacuated and it is currently in an emergency shutdown state.

Over the past week, spurred by news that “million-ton aluminum production capacity may come offline,” London aluminum futures rose by more than 5%, triggering unusual moves in some industry stocks.

Earlier, there were reports that after the facility was hit by Iranian missiles and drones, the power supply was cut off, causing the metal to solidify inside the smelting loop. One analyst noted that when metal solidifies during the smelting process, the damage caused may take at least a year to repair.

In its Friday statement, Emirates Global Aluminium confirmed the market’s speculation.

The company said that, to resume operations of the smelter, the company must repair damage to its infrastructure and gradually restore the operation of each electrolytic cell. Preliminary signs indicate that a full recovery of aluminum production may take up to 12 months. In addition, the alumina refining plant and recycling plant may be able to resume some production earlier, with the specific timeline still depending on the final assessment of the damage on site. In 2025, the alumina plant produced 2.4 million tons of alumina, supplying 46% of Emirates Global Aluminium’s total alumina demand. The recycling plant’s annual production capacity is 185k tons.

However, a key prerequisite for repairing the plant is that there is a ceasefire in the Gulf region.

Based on media reports including CCTV News, between Thursday and Friday local time, the Karaj city Beik Expressway Bridge—described as the highest bridge in the Middle East and a signature engineering masterpiece of Iran—was targeted by terror attacks twice. After that, Iran announced it would retaliate against transportation networks in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, according to a Friday report from the Office of Media in Abu Dhabi, the country’s largest natural gas processing facility, Habshan, has suspended operations after officials intercepted an incoming attack and a fire was triggered by falling debris. Kuwait also disclosed on Friday that a refinery with a daily capacity of 346k barrels was attacked; the units that were operating at the time caught fire. In addition, another power generation and seawater desalination plant was attacked, and some components were damaged.

In addition, Bahrain Aluminium, a major refinery in the Middle East that was also attacked last weekend, is still assessing the extent of the damage.

（Source: Caixin Global）