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Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has restored and restarted 50 per cent of the reduction cells at its Al Taweelah smelter in Abu Dhabi, as the company works towards restoring full production in the first quarter of 2027. The site was targeted by an Iranian attack earlier this year amid the US-Iran war.
Subsequently, the Al Taweelah smelter entered an emergency shutdown as the targeting led to a full evacuation of the site. "EGA teams are progressively restoring and restarting each reduction cell, working along the three potlines at Al Taweelah in parallel," the company said in a statement on Wednesday, October 21.
"The first restored reduction cell was restarted on May 26. So far, 631 of the 1,262 reduction cells at Al Taweelah have been restarted."
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In comments on the progress on restoring the site, Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “With our sustained good progress, we continue to expect that we will reach full production at Al Taweelah smelter during Q1 2027.
The restoration of Al Taweelah is the biggest challenge we have ever faced as a company. Thousands of dedicated colleagues are working around the clock to bring back Al Taweelah, and EGA, stronger than ever before.”
EGA’s Al Taweelah smelter produced 1.6 million tonnes of cast metal in 2025. EGA had substantial metal stock on the water when the conflict began, and stock on the ground in some overseas locations.
Emergency shutdown
EGA, UAE's largest industrial company outside the oil and gas sector, clarified techinical details regarding the emergency shutdown following the Iranian attack.
"Following the emergency shutdown, molten aluminium froze in every reduction cell at Al Taweelah, leaving solid metal pads weighing up to 45 tonnes to be removed. Almost 80 per cent of reduction cells can then be restarted. The remaining reduction cells require repairs, potlining demolition and relining, based on the duration the reduction cells had been operating before the incident," it said.
After restart, a reduction cell typically takes a week to stabilise and reach full production. Some hot metal is used to restart subsequent reduction cells, with the balance delivered to EGA’s Casthouse to be cast into finished aluminium products.
"Compared to the normal rolling maintenance programme, EGA has more than tripled its capacity to safely repair and restart reduction cells at Al Taweelah through optimising workflows, adding equipment, strengthening people capability, and innovating new industrial processes," the company shared.
The company deployed a new technology pilot during Al Taweelah smelter restoration process. Otherwise, the work would have required operating reduction cells to be shutdown during construction. "The pilot E40 upgrades to 13 DX technology reduction cells will be used to prove the performance of the technology before industrialisation across all 808 DX technology cells at Al Taweelah.
If applied to all DX reduction cells, EGA’s E40 technology has the potential to increase hot metal production by 67 thousand tonnes per year," EGA said.
March 28 attack
On March 28, 2026, EGA said Al Taweelah, which is located in Khalifa Economic Zone Abu Dhabi (Kezad), sustained significant damage in Iranian missile and drone attacks.
Later on that day, Abu Dhabi media office confirmed that three fires that broke out following a sucessful missile interception at Kezad were contained. Five Indian nationals and one Pakistani have been injured and their wounds range from minor to moderate.
EGA said a number of its employees sustained wounds in the incident, but their injuries are not life-threatening.