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    Wittbecker: The United Arab Emirates’ Emirates Global Aluminum US smelter project

    Written by Greg Wittbecker


    The United Arab Emirates’ Emirates (UAE) Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA) announced plans to spend $1.4 trillion dollars in the US over the next 10 years, including a greenfield primary aluminum smelter. Is this real or another soundbite?

    The EGA proposed greenfield smelter would “double” existing US primary production. Current US production is around 683,000 metric tons per year, so it is reasonable to assume the design of the new facility will be around 750,000 tons per year, which has become the recent scale of smelters in the Middle East.

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