EGA and Microsoft to Partner Up for Industry 4.0 and Wider digital transformation.

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the world’s largest ‘premium producer’ and the biggest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas and Microsoft UAE today announced they are to partner on Industry 4.0 and wider digital transformation, targeting establish global best practices for the aluminium industry while refining the sustainability of EGA’s computing operations.

Microsoft and Emirates Global Aluminium are members of the UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology’s Industry 4.0 Champions Network, which proposes to accelerate Industry 4.0 adoption throughout the UAE business.

Under the new arrangement, both companies will team up to advance EGA’s Digital Roadmap, which is already transforming EGA’s operations through digital capabilities such as Big data and artificial intelligence.Emirates Global Aluminium and Microsoft will leverage the power of cloud computing to speed up and scale the growth of new digital solutions, moving a third of EGA’s server infrastructure and applications to Microsoft Azure Cloud.

Microsoft cloud will enable EGA to make significant energy savings through digital transformation and by driving enhanced efficacies. EGA is projected to reduce the energy consumption of its overall computing operations by up to 65 percent and CO2 emissions by over 80 percent.

Emirates Global Aluminium will also develop a private Microsoft Azure Cloud at its sites, moving an additional third of its computing to this system, unlocking opportunities to deploy data-heavy and time-sensitive artificial intelligence and automation solutions across the company’s industrial operations.

The company will use virtual desktop cloud computers to create a more flexible, secure, and efficient, workplace computing experience for employees.Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Global Aluminium, said that the company is already transforming EGA’s business, operations, and employee experience through Industry 4.0 and its broader digital transformation.

EGA’s collaboration with Microsoft will empower them to further accelerate, scale, and nurture this effort as a digital lighthouse for the region and its industry.

Naim Yazbeck, General Manager at Microsoft UAE said:

Microsoft is delighted to partner with Emirates Global Aluminium, the world’s largest premium aluminium producer, to accelerate its Industry 4.0 transformation while also pioneering further improvements in Microsoft’s cloud for manufacturing services.

Emirates Global Aluminium will provide input to Microsoft on innovations and improvements to the technology company’s products and services. Microsoft will help upskill EGA staff on relevant Microsoft technologies to accelerate adoption within the aluminium giant’s operations.The company has a bold aspiration to innovate the future of aluminium production.

For the decades ahead, the company intends to act as a technology pathfinder for the aluminium industry, expanding its position as the technology supplier of choice, and establishing a thriving manufacturing innovation ecosystem in the UAE.

Emirates Global Aluminium has developed technology in the UAE for more than 25 years and is concentrated on improving the efficiency of the aluminium smelting process. The company’s latest home-grown technology is among the most competitive and efficient in the global aluminium industry.

Source:https://news.microsoft.com/

About EGA

Since its foundation in 1975, as Dubai Aluminium by His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates Global Aluminium has been innovating aluminium to make modern life possible.Today Emirates Global Aluminium is the ‘premium aluminium’ producer in the world and the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry.

The largest premium producer is owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai. It is the biggest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.The company is an integrated aluminium producer, with operations from bauxite mining to the production of cast primary aluminium.

EGA operates aluminium smelters in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, an alumina refinery in Al Taweelah, and a bauxite mine and associated export facilities in the Republic of Guinea.The company’s aluminium is the second largest made-in-the-UAE export after oil and gas.

In 2021, EGA sold 2.54 million tonnes of cast metal. EGA is the only UAE producer and makes the UAE the fifth largest aluminium producing nation in the world.The world’s largest premium producer has more than 400 customers in over 50 countries. In 2021, value-added products accounted for 84 percent of EGA’s cast metal sales.EGA’s aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, aerospace, packaging, and electronics industries.

Around 10 percent of EGA’s aluminium production is sold in the UAE to around 26 downstream aluminium companies that make products with EGA’s aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the UAE supports 60,950 jobs. EGA itself employs over 7,000 of these people including almost 1,200 UAE Nationals.

As a corporate citizen of the UAE, Emirates Global Aluminium aspires in all its operations to be measured amongst the world’s leading metals and mining companies in meeting its environmental and social responsibilities.