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Darvesh to set up Dh2b aluminium plant in DIC

DUBAI — The Dubai-based Darvesh Group yesterday announced a Dh2 billion aluminium processing project that will be built at the Dubai Industrial City.

Announcing the three-phased project, billed as the largest aluminium processing plant in the world with a capacity of 135,000 tonnes, Ahsan Darvesh, Executive Director of the diversified group, said the first phase of the plant would be commissioned in the first quarter of 2008. Work on the project will commence in June this year.

He said the aluminium processing plant, Nova Aluminium, will be the first of its kind in the UAE. The plant, part of Nova Industries, will process aluminium ingots sourced from major regional smelters and manufacture end-user products including foil for a wide range of applications.

In the first phase, the plant will have a capacity of 30,000 tonnes. The second phase of the project will boost capacity by 45,000 tonnes. When the 60,000-tonne third phase will be ready by 2010, Nova plant will emerge as the largest aluminium processing facility in the world. Currently in the Gulf, Bahrain has an aluminium processing plant with a capacity of 20,000 tonnes.

He said aluminium ingots for the plant will be sourced from Dubai's Dubal, or from neighbouring countries including Bahrain and Oman. The exclusive technology contract for the project was signed yesterday with Germany's Achenbach on the sidelines of Arabplast exhibition which is under way at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. The group's Nova Industries has another manufacturing unit for producing paper cores, stretch film, blown film, shrink film, adhesive tapes and cast polyfilm.