Alba
Alba
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has been consistently ranked as one of the largest aluminium smelters in the world and is known for its technological strength and innovative policies.
It has consistently maintained a high track record for safety and continues to enforce strict environmental guidelines and has surpassed production targets set for the year. It supports numerous community oriented programmes and social activities that have underlined its status as one of Bahrain's leading industrial organisations that remains fully committed to its corporate social responsibility.
History
The story of Alba marks the inception of industrial diversification in the Arabian Gulf.
The company’s ongoing success as a primary producer of high-grade aluminium has brought significant economic benefits to the region and has taken the country technologically into the 21st Century.
In the mid 1960s, the Bahrain Government was seeking to diversify its economic base from a heavy dependence on oil. The aim was to establish a suitable industry which would provide valuable export earnings, develop the country’s resources and create training and employment opportunities for a large number of Bahrainis.
Bahrain's well situated geographic location between the source of raw materials, particularly alumina from Australia, and the markets for primary aluminium in Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Bahrain’s prime advantage was its plentiful supply of gas from the Khuff (Saudi Arabia) field to meet the high energy requirements of aluminium production.
Aluminium Bahrain was therefore incorporated by Amiri Charter in 1968 and officially commissioned on 11th May 1971 as a 120,000 tonnes per annum smelter.
Today, the company produces more than 500,000 tonnes per annum, having expanded in 1981, 1990, 1992 and 1997 - making the smelter one of the largest single-site producers of aluminium in the world.
The three shareholders are the Government of Bahrain (77%), the Saudi Public Investment Fund (20%) and Breton Investments (3%).
To supply the energy needed for aluminium production, Alba has its own power complex with a total generating capacity of 1,504MW. Use is made of combined cycle technology which allows the company to achieve optimum power generation efficiency. In simple terms, waste heat generated by the gas turbines is passed through heat recovery boilers to produce steam to power the steam turbines.
The power plant consisting of four power stations also provides up to 275MW of electricity to the national grid during the summer.
Metal production
Alba has four reduction lines with a total of 1,048 cells. It is here that the electrolytic process takes place.
Following the modernisation of all the original cells, all four reduction lines now share the same high degree of operational efficiency and environmental control. Using the latest technology, traditionally manual tasks have been automated resulting in significantly improved working conditions.
The three main raw materials used by Alba - alumina, petroleum coke and pitch - are unloaded 10km from the main plant at the company’s marine terminal.
As part of the company’s environmental commitment, Alba utilises the environment-friendly liquid form of pitch. It is unloaded into the liquid pitch facility before transportation by special purpose truck to the smelter.
Approximately half of Alba’s metal (in the form of rolling slab, billets, ingots, T-ingots and hot metal) supplies the growing downstream aluminium industry in Bahrain. These companies include Garmco, Balexco, Midal Cables, Aluwheel and Bahrain Atomisers. Alba also exports to more than 25 countries throughout the world.
In 2000, Alba was accredited with the Environmental Management System standard ISO 14001, an excellent plant-wide achievement given the size and diversity of its operations.
Alba produces more than 870,000 metric tonnes per annum of the highest grade aluminium. Around 45 per cent of output is supplied to Bahrain's downstream industry, with the rest exported to regional and international customers in the Middle East, Europe, Far East, South East Asia, Africa and North America.
Alba’s net finished production for 2008 was 871,658 tonnes, an increase of 6,610 tonnes over 2007 figures. Consolidated sales volume for 2008 was 846,127 tonnes and total shipment was 855,313 tonnes.
The quality of metal purity increased across all reduction lines in 2008 to reach an average of 99.89 per cent.
Alba’s prominent role in the community and economy has long been recognised - a fact reflected in a number of recent awards that include the GCC (Gulf Cooperative Council) award for best environmental activities by an industrial establishment in 2001, a GCC-wide award for Bahrainisation, reflecting Alba’ s commitment to Human Resources Development, Environmental Management System standard ISO 14001 in 2001 and Millennium Business Award for Environmental Achievement in 2000.
Alba was one of only 12 companies in the world to win this prestigious award presented by the United Nations Environment Programme in conjunction with the International Chamber of Commerce.