Middle East aluminium makers suffer damage from Iranian attacks

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Dubai – Two Middle Eastern aluminum producers were hit by Iranian attacks on March 28, highlighting the challenge to the global economy as the war disrupts vital industries.  

The region’s top producer, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), said it sustained “significant damage” at its site in Abu Dhabi, while Aluminium Bahrain said it was assessing the extent of damage to its facility. 

The attacks are another blow to the region’s commodity industry, with producers mostly prevented from exporting by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. In addition to the disruption to shipping, Iranian attacks have damaged key facilities, likely extending the time it will take for operations to return to normal when the war is over.

Aluminium is a metal used widely in transportation, construction and packaging. It is a critical component in solar panels, electrical transmission systems, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles.

Aluminium prices, already rising before the conflict, have gained further as traders and buyers focus on the potential for tighter markets and shrinking global inventories. The Middle East accounts for around 9 per cent of global supply and much of that is now blocked inside Hormuz.

EGA is still assessing damage from the attack on its Al Taweelah site located at the Khalifa Port industrial zone in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, the company said in a statement. It confirmed that several employees were injured, but declined to say whether operations at the facility had been suspended.

As the biggest non-energy industrial company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), EGA operates two smelters, one each in the emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The Al Taweelah site is halfway between the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the Khalifa Economic Zone along the Persian Gulf. The Dubai plant is in the Jebel Ali port and freezone area.

The Al Taweelah smelter produced 1.6 million tonnes of cast metal in 2025. The company had substantial metal stock offshore when Israel and the US began their war on Iran in February, as well as in some overseas locations, according to the statement. It has used that external product to help meet customer demand.

EGA has been a major international investor and is part of the UAE’s pledge to spend US$1.4 trillion (S$1.8 trillion) in the United States over the next decade. The UAE has been the second-largest aluminium supplier to the US, well behind Canada, and is building the first new American smelter in decades in Oklahoma.

In the US, EGA also owns a recycling plant in Minnesota that has allowed it to benefit from domestically produced metals selling at higher prices due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. BLOOMBERG