Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has reported a profit of $900m in 2017, a 59 per cent increase from 2016.

The state-owned company’s revenues increased to $5.6bn in 2017 compared to $4.6bn in 2016.

EGA has said its cast metal production has also increased to 2.6 million tonnes last year from the 2.5 million tonnes in 2016, while sales of value-added products increased by 87,000 tonnes in 2017 to 2.1 million tonnes, representing 82 per cent of total sales.

The company, jointly owned by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company and the Investment Corporation of Dubai, sold value-added products to 336 customers in 54 countries in 2017 and is the world’s biggest ‘premium aluminium’ producer.

EGA distributed AED2bn ($546m) to its shareholders in 2017 compared to AED1.2bn ($340m) in 2016.

The company has announced that work on its Al-Taweelah alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi is currently 76 per cent complete and first alumina is expected during the first half of 2019. Once full ramp up is achieved, Al-Taweelah alumina refinery will meet 40 per cent of EGA’s alumina requirements.

‘More than 10,000 people are currently working on the project, which has a total budgeted project cost of approximately $3.3bn’, EGA stated in a press release.

About 10 per cent EGA’s production is supplied to customers in the UAE, serving the UAE’s downstream fabrication sector. EGA sold 268 thousand tonnes of metal to customers in the UAE in 2017, compared to 262 thousand tonnes in 2016. This included sales of hot liquid metal to customers located near EGA’s Al-Taweelah smelter in Abu Dhabi.