Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) was named the GCC Industrial Project of the Year by the MEED Projects Awards earlier this week for its Line 6 Expansion Project.
The MEED Project Awards are handed out to firms that demonstrate excellence in the Gulf region across several sectors, judging them on criteria including project delivery and operations, innovation, and sustainability.
In addition to being named Project of the Year, Alba’s Line 6 Expansion Project was named Industrial Project of the Year and Mega Project of the Year. The Line 6 Expansion Project stood out from among several other competing projects due to its design and engineering among other criteria, explained the firm.
Alba’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Shaikh Daij bin Salman bin Daij Al Khalifa expressed his company’s happiness at winning the award in a related press release.
“We are pleased that Alba Line 6 Expansion Project has been the recipient of MEED Industrial Project of 2020 at the GCC level – this truly recognises Alba’s strategic importance as one of the industrial cornerstones of Bahrain as well as its commitment to the Kingdom’s Economic Vision 2030.”
Alba’s Chief Executive Officer Ali Al Baqali noted the importance of the project in his remarks on the subject.
“Alba will be closing 2020 as the world’s largest smelter w/o China thanks to Line 6 Expansion Project. This Landmark Project is a pledge of value creation for all our stakeholders and Bahrain’s society for the generations to come.”
Alba is one of the largest industrial companies in the Middle East and is the world’s biggest aluminium smelter outside the People’s Republic of China. Originally incorporated in 1968, the company is based in Bahrain and 84% of its total workforce are Bahraini nationals. It began operations in 1971 with a 120,000 metric ton annual capacity. Modernization bumped the output up to 450,000 metric tons in 1992. In the spring of 2005, Alba opened Line 5, raising output by 860,000 metric tons per year. In 2019 Alba’s smelter produced 1,365,005 metric tons of primary aluminium.