Abu Dhabi – Mubasher: Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) is ready to deal with the probable effects of the recently announced US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, EGA managing director and CEO Abdulla Jassem Kalban said.
EGA strives to supply the US with high-quality aluminum products to meet manufacturers’ requirements and needs, the top official told Alittihad newspaper, noting that the US market’s imports represent around 18% or 450,000 tonnes of EGA’s annual production.
On Thursday, Trump officially imposed 25% tariffs on steel imports and 10% on aluminum. As a response to the announcement, the European Union (EU), which had continuously criticised the decision, said it hoped that European countries would be exempted from the tariffs.
So far, only Canada and Mexico were exempt from the tariffs.
The impact of the tariffs on EGA will not be immediate but will be noticeable with the passage of time, Kalban went on.
The top official noted that his company’s US client base involved 51 clients across 21 states, whereas its global footprint included 350 clients spanning 60 countries.
UAE exports, in general, to the US jumped 31% to AED 15.86 billion ($4.3 billion) during 2017 from AED 12.3 billion ($3.35 billion) the year before, data released by the American Statistical Association (ASA) showed.
An EGA spokesperson told Reuters last week that the US was an important market for EGX. “We are well prepared for whatever market conditions may arise,” he added.
EGA meets local UAE demand by 100%, Kalban noted, indicating that the UAE represents 10% of global aluminum production with 260,000 tonnes per annum.
The UAE is the third largest aluminum exporter to the US after Canada and Russia, while EGA is the third-largest producer of primary aluminum outside China.
