(MENAFN- Mid-East.Info) Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, is marking Emirati Women's Day with, for the first time, a majority of women amongst the company's graduate trainees.
EGA currently has 75 graduate trainees, 49 of them women, and all Nationals. Graduate trainees complete 18 or 24 months of training for supervisory positions in corporate functions or in.
industrial operations. For graduate trainees in operations, this includes periods working shifts in front-line operational roles they will supervise, such as tending reduction cells.
EGA employs over 471 women in the in total, including more than 160 in operations. The company is aiming for women to hold 25 per cent of supervisory positions by 2025, and 15 per cent of all positions by 2026.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said:“Emirati Women's Day is an opportunity to recognise the role of National women at EGA, and to assess our progress in championing gender diversity. Diversity drives business performance, and also enables the best talents from right across society to contribute to the progress of our nation. That is why we have set ourselves ambitigoals to further increase the role of women at EGA.”
The is one of few countries in the world where more women than men graduate from university in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. EGA is a major employer of STEM professionals, with around 1,500 people working at the company in these roles.
On Emirati Women's Day, EGA's senior leaders will attend an event organised by EGA's Women's Network to discuss how to make further progress on gender diversity. Last year, EGA recruited 100 National women in total, out of a total National intake of just over 220. The average age of EGA's National recruits was 23 years old.
EGA has appointed women to nine positions on subsidiary Boards in recent years, and is a partner of Aurora50, a organisation which helps prepare women for Board -level roles.
In 2022, EGA opened National Training programmes for front-line roles in industrial operations to women for the first time, with 11 young National women joining during the year. To date this year, 9 female national trainees have joined.
About EGA:
Since 1975, when it was founded as Dubai Aluminium by His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum,Emirates Global Aluminium has been innovating aluminium to make modern life possible.
Today EGA is the world's biggest 'premium aluminium' producer and the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry.
EGA is equally-owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai. It is the largest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.
EGA is an integrated aluminium producer, with operations from bauxite mining to the production of cast primary aluminium. EGA operates aluminium smelters in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, an alumina refinery in Al Taweelah and a bauxite mine and associated export facilities in the Republic of Guinea.
EGA's aluminium is the second largest made-in-the export after oil and gas. In 2022, EGA sold 2.72 million tonnes of cast metal. EGA is the only producer and makes the the fifth largest aluminium producing nation in the world. EGA has more than 400 customers in over 50 countries. In 2022, value-added products accounted for 78 per
cent of EGA's cast metal sales. EGA's aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, packaging, aerospace and electronics industries.
Around 10 per cent of EGA's aluminium production is sold in the to around 26 downstream aluminium companies that make products with EGA's aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the supports almost 48,000 jobs. EGA itself employs around 6,800 of these people including more than 1,200 Nationals.
EGA has focused on technology development for over 30 years. EGA has used its own technology for every smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines. In 2016 EGA became the first industrial company to licence its core industrial process technology internationally.
As a corporate citizen of the UAE, EGA aspires in all its operations to be measured amongst the world's leading metals and mining companies in meeting its environmental and social responsibilities. In 2017, EGA became the first Middle East headquartered company to join the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, a global programme to
foster greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminium industry. In 2019, EGA's Al Taweelah site became.
the first in the Middle East to receive certification from ASI for its sustainability practices and performance. EGA's Jebel Ali site was certified in 2021. EGA's bauxite mining subsidiary, Guinea Alumina Corporation, achieved the first ASI certification in Guinea in 2023. Al Taweelah alumina refinery was certified later in 2023, with the result that EGA now has all of its global operations certified to the aluminium industry's internationally recognised standard for environmental and social performance and governance.
In 2021, EGA began production of CelestiAL solar aluminium, produced with solar power from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park on the outskirts of Dubai. EGA is the first company in the world to make aluminium commercially using the power of the sun.
EGA was formed in 2014 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium.
EGA's Jebel Ali aluminium smelter began production as DUBAL in 1979. At almost five square kilometres, this site is five times bigger than Dubai Mall. EMAL started production in 2009 and its Al Taweelah aluminium smelter was the largest single-site aluminium smelter in the world when completed. EGA's Al Taweelah site is five times bigger than Al Maryah Island at six square kilometres.
EGA has its own power stations at both sites, producing electricity to meet its needs. EGA's electricity generation capacity is 6,474 megawatts, making EGA the third largest electricity generator in the after the Dubai and Abu Dhabi utilities. EGA also produces water through desalination units at its power plants.
EGA began production at Al Taweelah alumina refinery in April 2019. EGA's alumina refinery is the first in the and only the second in the Middle East. The project reduces the UAE's dependence on imported alumina and supplies over 45 per cent of EGA's needs.
Bauxite exports from Guinea Alumina Corporation, EGA's wholly-owned subsidiary in Guinea, began in August 2019. The GAC project was one of the largest greenfield investments in Guinea in over 40 years.