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ABU DHABI / WAM
Emirates Global Aluminium today announced the start of production at the expansion of the EGA Spectro Alloys aluminium recycling plant in Minnesota in the United States.
The expansion adds 55 thousand tonnes of secondary billet production capacity in the first phase. The ramp-up to full production is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2026.
The expansion takes EGA Spectro Alloys’ total production capacity to 165 thousand tonnes per year of recycled aluminium ingots and billets.
Metal from the expansion project will be sold under EGA’s recycled aluminium product brand RevivAL.
The completion of the expansion project at EGA Spectro Alloys brings EGA’s global aluminium recycling capacity to 195 thousand tonnes per year, with plants in the U.S and Germany.
EGA is currently building the UAE’s largest aluminium recycling plant in Al Taweelah, which will have a capacity of 170 thousand tonnes per year of aluminium billets. The UAE recycling plant is expected to begin production in the first half of 2026.
Abdulnasser bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said today, “Reaching first hot metal at the expansion of EGA Spectro Alloys is another milestone in our drive to build a global aluminium recycling business to meet growing demand for this low carbon metal. It is also a milestone in EGA’s growth in the United States, already one of our most important markets and where we are progressing our plans to build a primary aluminium production plant in Oklahoma.”
Demand for recycled aluminium in the United States is expected to reach some 7.6 million tonnes per year by 2033, according to CRU, an independent business intelligence organisation. The United States is currently the world’s second biggest recycled aluminium market.
Recycling aluminium requires 95 per cent less electricity than making new metal, and generates a fraction of the greenhouse gas emissions.
In Oklahoma, EGA plans to develop the first new primary aluminium production plant in the United States of America since 1980.
The plant is expected to have a production capacity of 600 thousand tonnes of primary aluminium per year, nearly doubling the United States’ current production. Some 85 per cent of the aluminium needs of American industries, from automotive to aviation and construction, are currently met by imports.
EGA acquired 80 per cent of EGA Spectro Alloys in 2024.