Aluminium Bahrain (BHB: ALBH) is producing aluminium at around 80% of pre-Iran war levels, its CEO Ali Al Baqali told Reuters on Wednesday, exporting the metal through the Saudi Red Sea port of Jeddah and from Sohar in Oman.
Bahrain’s Alba, which describes itself as the world’s biggest aluminium smelter on one site, shut down production lines 1, 2, and 3 after the outbreak of the war as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupted supply chains.
Its plant was then hit by an Iranian strike in late March, which the Alba CEO described as a “small, minor attack”.
“We got damages and we already repaired them,” Al Baqali said on the sidelines of the Fastmarkets Aluminium Conference in Budapest, adding that Alba was covered by insurance.
Al Baqali said Alba is now operating lines 4, 5 and 6 at its smelter, equivalent to 1.3 million metric tons per year of production. Its capacity before the Iran war was around 1.6 million tons per year.
Its overall capacity will return to 1.6 million tons when it completes its acquisition of the 300,000-ton-per-year French smelter Aluminium Dunkerque in the next few months, he said.
Furthermore, Alba could yet restart lines 1, 2 and 3, which accounted for 19% of its pre-war capacity, provided it can source enough alumina, its key raw material, and gas, and if the Strait of Hormuz reopens, Al Baqali added.
To maintain production, Alba is bringing in 300 to 350 trucks carrying alumina on a daily basis, he said.
“We are managing to receive around 7,000 metric tons of alumina every day,” Al Baqali said, describing the logistics operation as “expensive”, but offset by the high LME aluminium price CMAL3 and premiums for physical metal.
(Reporting by Tom Daly. Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Mark Potter and Alexander Smith)
