Abu Dhabi appears to be pushing ahead with a delayed metals park planned for Taweelah as progress is made on an aluminium extrusions plant and an aluminium rod mill.

Taweelah Aluminium Extrusion Company (Talex) has awarded an estimated $160m contract to Italy’s Bruno Presezzi for the construction of an aluminium extrusions plant, according to a company close to the bidding process.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phase of the contract is expected to be completed by the end of 2015. The project covers the construction of a 50,000 tonne-a-year (t/y) plant to manufacture aluminium extrusion products.

Talex was formed in in May 2011 by a merger between Abu Dhabi’s state-owned General Holdings Corporation (Senaat) and Gulf Extrusion, a company owned by Dubai’s Al-Ghurair Group.

The aluminium extrusions plant, along with other downstream metals projects, will be located in Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad), located on the coast half way between Abu Dhabi and Dubai cities.

Hot metal will be provided by the Emirates Aluminium (Emal) smelter and the cast house will provide the plant with the flexibility to produce its own billets, which can then be used in the extrusion press.

The Emal smelter has undergone a $4.5bn expansion to expand capacity to 1.4 million t/y of primary aluminium, which Abu Dhabi is using as a catalyst for new downstream metals operations to increase profits and provide jobs for local citizens.

Meanwhile, Senaat has set up a new joint venture with Ducab called Ducab Aluminium to build an aluminium rod mill at Kizad.

The plant will have the capacity to produce 50,000 t/y of aluminium rod products using raw materials from Emal. The project, which is expected to cost about $60m, will manufacture electrical-conductive (EC) grade and aluminium alloy rods, wires and bare overhead conductors.

A third planned downstream metals project in Kizad is Talex’s planned 40,000 t/y copper pipe mill to make products for air conditioning and water systems. According to sources close to the bidding process, Talex is expected to retender the EPC contract in the first quarter of 2014 after a scrapped tender process started in 2010.