Qatalum at full production

Qatalum achieved its full production capacity of 585,000 tonnes on September 21, 2011. The world class smelter is serving global customers through its value added product casthouse.

“We are excited to be entering this new phase at Qatalum, moving from the ramp-up phase to full production. It has been a challenging goal that both owners have been striving towards. We’ve experienced setbacks, but these have contributed in creating the current strong team that, together, will bring operational excellence to the forefront,” says Qatalum CEO Tom Petter Johansen.

This historic achievement will support Qatalum’s vision of becoming a sustainable economic catalyst, using Qatar's gas energy to create a valuable commodity – aluminium.

With a first phase production capacity of 585,000 metric tonnes per year from 704 cells, Qatalum will enable Qatar to contribute a significant portion towards GCC aluminium production. In addition, due to aluminium's excellent recyclability and the leading-edge, low environmental impact technology used by Qatalum, the smelter will be one of the most environmentally efficient plants constructed to date.

“I would like to reaffirm Qatalum’s commitment to draw continuously closer to fulfilling Qatar’s National Vision of 2030, and we look forward to building the country’s fledgling aluminium industry to make it one of the world’s significant aluminium producers. More than that, we look forward to creating a future of opportunities for the community by setting the standard in operational excellence and maintaining environmental integrity,” added Khalid Mohamed Laram, Qatalum’s Deputy CEO.

Potline team infront of last pot, During 2011, Qatalum reached various milestones on its way towards full operation. In January, the plant had ramped up 352 cells – the whole of potline 2 and half of the plant’s total capacity. This was followed, in June, by approval from the London Metal Exchange (LME) Executive Committee as an LME deliverable brand. In August, the last section of the two potlines became fully energised. Most significantly, the captive 1350 MW Power Plant was fully commissioned and constituted to reliable power being supplied for the operation of all 704 pots.