Alba welcomes high-level delegation

Manama, Aug. 19 (BNA): Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), soon to become the largest single-site smelter in the world, recently received a high-level delegation from General Electric (GE) Power at Al Dana Hall, Alba. Led by the President and CEOof GE Gas Power Systems (GPS) Chuck Nugent, the delegation comprised the CEO of GE TurkeyCananOzsoy, President and CEO of GE GPS Projects MEI Mohamad Ali and the CEO of GAMA HoldingsEvren Unver. The delegates were received by Alba’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO)Ali Al Baqali, Chief Marketing Officer Khalid A. Latif, Chief Power OfficerAmin Sultan, Chief Administration Officer Waleed Tamimi along with other officials from Alba. The delegation was briefed about Alba’s historical background, its achievements and importance toBahrain’s economy then accompanied in a tour to Power Station 5 site. Commenting on the visit, the DCEO Ali Al Baqali said: “Alba’s flagship project, Line 6 Expansion Project, is under way especially as we have on-boarded the last batch of new recruits in June 2018. We are pleased to share the progress made-to-dateon the Power Expansion Project with GE officials; we also trust that our EPC contractor, GE-GAMA, will continue their intensive commissioning effort to meet the pouring of First Hot Metal on January 01, 2019.” The CEO & President of GE Gas Power Systems (GPS) Chuck Nugent added: “We have a strong and long-term partnership with Alba, which has set a global first by deploying GE Power’s advanced H-Class turbine, the world’s largest and most efficient gas turbine for the first time in the region and in the aluminum smelting industry. The H-Class technology will help Alba increase its power capacity to support its smelter expansion, and we will work alongside the team providing maintenance coverage, onsite support, digital remote support and other efficiency measures. We are also committed to advancing Alba’s vision to become the world’s largest single-site smelter. We are progressing Power Station 5 to support Alba’s goal of First Hot Metal by January 01, 2019.” In line with the Kingdom’s 2030 Economic Vision, the Line 6 Expansion Project has created around 500 permanent direct jobs in Alba and will boost the downstream cluster by creating indirectly few thousand job opportunities. To-date, Alba is proactively training the new hires to be ready to operate Line 6 smelter and PS 5 facilities as the construction nears completion. Line 6 Expansion Project will bring Alba’s total production capacity to 1.5 million metric tonnes per year making it the world’s largest single-site aluminium smelter.