Construction milestone at EGA's UAE aluminium recycling plant as melting furnace charged for first time

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 26 January 2026: Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, today announced that the giant melting furnace at the company's under-construction aluminium recycling plant at Al Taweelah has been charged with scrap metal for the first time, in a major construction milestone.

Completion of construction is expected by the end of the first quarter of 2026.

EGA's Al Taweelah recycling plant will have a production capacity of 185 thousand tonnes per year, making it the UAE's largest. The new plant will process post-consumer aluminium scrap, and pre-consumer aluminium scrap, which will be blended with primary aluminium into low-carbon, high-quality billets and T Bars. EGA markets aluminium with recycled content under the product brand RevivAL. 

EGA also blends recycled metal with primary aluminium produced using solar power, marketed as CelestiAL-R, and with nuclear power, sold as MinimAL-R.

Commissioning of scrap sorting equipment began in December at the giant new aluminium recycling plant. Al Taweelah recycling plant's scrap sorting system can shred and segregate up to 150 thousand tonnes of scrap per year, using magnetic, mechanical and x-ray segregation technology.

Al Taweelah recycling plant is equipped with a 90 thousand tonnes per year melting furnace, which operates at around 750 degrees Celsius. The melting furnace uses heat regeneration burners to further improve efficiency.

Liquid recycled metal is transferred to two 90 tonne capacity holding furnaces, which are used to blend recycled metal and primary aluminium from EGA's smelter, and adjust metal chemistry

On site, work continues to complete the casting and homogenisation stations to produce finished recycled aluminium products.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said: "Aluminium's infinite recyclability is a key reason our metal is an essential material for the development of a more sustainable society. We are now reaching the final stages of construction on this important project, which will turn aluminium scrap generated in the UAE and elsewhere into new high quality aluminium products that make modern life possible."

Recycling aluminium requires 95 per cent less energy than making primary aluminium, generating a fraction of the greenhouse gas emissions. Global demand for recycled aluminium is expected to double by 2040.

EGA is expanding in aluminium recycling.

EGA Leichtmetall, a European specialty foundry in Germany, was acquired in 2024. In December, EGA announced its plans to expand production at EGA Leichtmetall more than six-fold by building a second facility near the existing Hannover location. The project will add 110 thousand tonnes per year of scrap sorting capacity and 150 thousand tonnes per year of melting and casting capacity, with first hot metal expected in 2028.

EGA acquired 80 per cent of EGA Spectro Alloys in the United States later in 2004. The first phase of an expansion was completed in 2025 and a second phase is expected to be completed during 2027, taking EGA Spectro Alloys' capacity to 200 thousand tonnes per year