RIYADH: Increasing demand for aluminium products in Saudi Arabia will push production in the country to 2.4 metric ton (MT) by 2015, making the Kingdom the largest market for aluminium in the Middle East. Besides the aluminum kitchen utensils that the consumers everyday, the construction sector in the Kingdom abundantly use aluminum in making a wide range of products for the construction industry, aluminiun makers said. Driven by the rapid growth of the Kingdom's construction sector, the demand for fabricated aluminium products is expected to increase at a compound average growth rate of 9 percent from $920 million in 2010 to $1,442 million in 2015. The huge demand is expected to increase at the average growth rate of 10 percent, from 5.4 million square meter (249,000 linear meters) in 2010 to 8.4 million square meter (377,000 linear meters) in 2015. Aluminum products used with the corresponding values are for windows (33 percent), curtain walls (17 percent) and cladding (17 percent). Aluminium demand by volume is also highest for windows (35 percent; cladding (24 percent) and curtain walls (15 percent). Saudi Arabia's aluminium market is expected to increase from $27 billion in 2010 to $44 billion in 2015, or an average growth rate of 10 percent, industry sources said. Total building construction expenditure is estimated to be $217 billion, excluding projects on hold, according to a recent report by Ventures Middle East. In recent years, the use of aluminium for curtain wall systems and cladding for new and modern property developments has become more widespread, thus fuelling demand for aluminium in the construction sector. As the Kingdom continues to diversify its economy toward non-oil industries, focus has increased on upstream primary aluminium production, such as bauxite extraction and alumina refining. While the aluminium industry has historically been focused on downstream production, the Kingdom is planning to become one of the major aluminium upstream producers in the Middle East, after announcing three aluminium smelting projects at a total value of $19.5 billion. The total capacity of planned projects is estimated to increase from 740,000 MT in 2013 to 2.4 million MT in 2016. As for the downstream aluminium industry, Saudi Arabia is now the base for the largest number of aluminium processing factories in the region at more than100. The five largest extrusion companies have a combined production capacity of around 144,000 MT per annum. The report said business opportunities created in the country's aluminium market will be discussed at the 2nd edition of Aluminium Dubai, the local version of Reed Exhibitions' global series of aluminium events which also covers India, China and Germany. A large number of Saudi manufactures of aluminium products will join the trade show from May 9 to 11 at the Sheikh Saeed Halls 2 and 3 of the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Center, said Tarek Ali, the show manager. He said the report confirmed the highly positive outlook of the Kingdom's aluminium market instilling confidence in the regional industry players.
