E-Paper
Sign In
UAE-developed aluminium technology to power major expansion in India
Emirates Global Aluminium signed a deal to add 500,000 tonnes of annual production capacity, more than doubling India’s National Aluminium Company's output
- PUBLISHED: Tue 8 Sept 2026, 4:26 PM
A UAE-developed technology that makes aluminium production more efficient is set to be used in India, marking another step in the international expansion of Emirates Global Aluminium’s (EGA) home-grown technology.
Under a new agreement, India’s National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) will use EGA’s DX+ Ultra technology for a major expansion of its Angul smelter in Odisha.
Recommended For You
The brownfield project will add 500,000 tonnes of annual production capacity and more than double Nalco's aluminium output. First aluminium production from the expansion is expected by the end of 2030.
Stay up to date with the latest news. Follow KT on WhatsApp Channels.
NALCO selected EGA as its technology provider through a competitive bidding process. EGA describes DX+ Ultra as one of the world’s most efficient aluminium smelting technologies.
UAE technology heads to India
As part of the agreement, EGA will licence NALCO to use DX+ Ultra to build reduction cells. The UAE company will also provide technical support throughout the project and train NALCO employees to operate the UAE-designed technology.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said developing its own technology has played an important role in EGA's competitiveness for decades.
“We are also the technology provider of choice for our global industry, creating further revenue streams for our company,” he said.
Bin Kalban described Nalco's selection of EGA technology as another milestone in the company's international technology business.
Developed in UAE for more than 30 years
EGA has been developing aluminium smelting technology in the UAE for more than 30 years, with 10 generations of technology developed so far.
Every EGA smelter expansion since the 1990s has used the company's own technology, while its older production lines have also been retrofitted.
That expertise has increasingly moved beyond the UAE. In 2016, EGA licensed DX+ Ultra to Aluminium Bahrain for its Line 6 expansion, becoming the first UAE industrial company to license its core process technology internationally.
Brijendra Pratap Singh, Chairman and Managing Director of NALCO, said the technology is expected to make the Anugola expansion one of India's most efficient aluminium smelters.
UAE’s role in global aluminium
EGA is the world's largest producer of premium aluminium and the UAE's largest industrial company outside oil and gas.
The company sold 2.84 million tonnes of cast metal in 2025 and is the UAE's only primary aluminium producer, helping make the country the fifth-largest aluminium-producing nation globally.
EGA supplies more than 400 customers across over 50 countries, while aluminium is the UAE's second-largest domestically produced export after oil and gas.
