Emirates Global Aluminium PJSC (EGA) reported financial and operating results for the full year of 2020 earlier this week. Despite the global market struggling under the effects of coronavirus, the firm’s numbers were generally strong for the year.
For the full year, EGA reported an adjusted EBITDA of US$1.13 billion, up by 63 percent on the year, thanks in part to a ramp-up of operations at its bauxite mines and alumina refinery. The firm’s operating activities generated US$1.5 billion in cash for the year, growing by 35 percent over 2019. Revenue fell by 9 percent in 2020 to US$5.1 billion as a result of lower global aluminium prices and a drop in demand for value-added products.
Operationally, EGA sold 2.52 million metric tons of cast metal, just under last year’s total of 2.60 million metric tons. The firm “flexed” its production mix in response to the market’s changing demand. On balance, for the entire year EGA’s product mix consisted of 72 percent value-added products, which is down from last year’s portion of 87.4 percent. The firm’s plant at Al Taweelah produced 1.92 million metric tons of alumina, nearly achieving its nameplate capacity of 2 million metric tons per annum. Meanwhile, operations at its Guinea Alumina Corporation shipped 9.56 million metric tons in its first full year of production, propelling it to the second largest third-party seller of bauxite on Earth.
“EGA delivered a significantly improved financial performance in 2020 in the most challenging year for the global aluminium industry in decades,” explained EGA’s CEO Abdulnasser Bin Kalban in a related press release. “We achieved this through product flexibility, a relentless focus on controllable costs and cash generation, and strong ramp-up performance in our new upstream projects despite the additional challenges of COVID-19.”
“The recovery of the global aluminium market that began in the second half of 2020 has continued into 2021, based on the brightening world economic outlook and growing optimism about the rollout of COVID-19 vaccination. We expect benchmark aluminium prices to remain around $2,000 for 2021 as a whole.”
“At EGA we continue to be focused on further improving the global competitiveness of our business as a national industrial champion for the UAE,” he concluded.
Based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Emirates Global Aluminium is an aluminium conglomerate created by the merger between Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL) and Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) in 2013. EGA had an estimated enterprise value of US$15 billion at the time the merger took place. The firm is owned equally by Mubadala Development Company of Abu Dhabi and Investment Corporation of Dubai. Emirates Global Aluminium holds interests in bauxite/alumina and primary aluminium smelting.