EGA's adjusted ebitda for 2020 surges 63pc to $1.13bn

    Its smelting ebitda margin for 2020 was 23 percent (2019: 14 percent), ranking amongst the best globally, the company said today (March 16).

    EGA flexed its aluminium product mix during 2020 in response to fluctuating market demand caused by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on world manufacturing.

    However, for the year as a whole EGA maintained its position as the world’s largest ‘premium aluminium’ producer by volume, with sales of value-added products of 1.8 million tonnes or 72 percent of total sales.

    The company sold value-added products in 2020 to more than 400 customers in over 50 countries.

    EGA sold 2.52 million tonnes of cast metal in total in 2020 compared to 2.60 million tonnes in 2019. The decrease was in part due to product mix, as alloying materials are not added in the P1020 casting process.

    Local sales to the downstream aluminium sector that has grown around EGA into one of the UAE’s most significant industries, were 252,000 tonnes compared to 294,000 tonnes in 2019.

    According to EGA, cash generated from operating activities was up 35 percent to AED5.5 billion ($1.5 billion), compared to AED4.1 billion ($1.1 billion) in 2019.

    It continued to improve working capital, which was reduced by more than AED1.4 billion ($370 million) in 2020 to generate additional cash, and also focused on further improving operational efficiency.

    On the results, CEO Abdulnasser bin Kalban said: "EGA delivered a significantly improved financial performance in 2020 in the most challenging year for the global aluminium industry in decades."

    "We achieved this through product flexibility, a relentless focus on controllable costs and cash generation, and strong ramp-up performance in our new upstream projects despite the additional challenges of Covid-19," he noted.

    "The recovery of the global aluminium market that began in the second half of 2020 has continued into 2021, based on the brightening world economic outlook and growing optimism about the rollout of COVID-19 vaccination. We expect benchmark aluminium prices to remain around $2,000 for 2021 as a whole," he added.

    Lower benchmark aluminium prices and premiums led to a reduction in revenue to AED18.7 billion ($5.1 billion), compared to AED20.5 billion ($5.6 billion) in 2019, partially offset by the ramp-up of bauxite sales from EGA’s bauxite mining subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation.

    GAC exported 9.56 million tonnes of bauxite ore, making EGA the second-largest third-party seller of bauxite in the world in its first full production year.

    EGA’s Al Taweelah alumina refinery produced 1.92 million tonnes of smelter grade alumina, close to its annual nameplate capacity of 2 million tonnes in its first full year of production. Al Taweelah alumina refinery’s production was at or above nameplate capacity in each month of the fourth quarter of 2020.