EGA and Gulftainer to expand aluminium exports from UAE’s East Coast

Emirates Global Aluminium and Gulftainer have signed a strategic agreement to expand aluminium exports from the UAE’s East Coast, strengthening a logistics corridor for one of the country’s most important non-oil industrial exports.

EGA announced on 30 September 2026 that the agreement forms part of its strategy to improve the efficiency and resilience of outbound logistics as it serves customers in global markets. The company described its aluminium as the biggest made-in-the-UAE export after oil and gas.

Under the agreement, EGA will route up to 250,000 tonnes of aluminium from the UAE’s East Coast in the first year. Volumes are expected to increase to up to 300,000 tonnes in the second year, with the possibility of further growth later. Gulftainer will develop port capabilities to meet EGA’s requirements.

The deal is a logistics story, but it is also an industrial-policy story. EGA is the UAE’s largest industrial company outside oil and gas, and its export network is central to the country’s manufacturing and non-oil trade ambitions. The company supplies more than 400 customers in more than 50 countries and reported selling more than 2.83 million tonnes of cast metal in 2025.

For exporters, the East Coast adds resilience by giving industrial producers more routing flexibility. That matters in a period when manufacturers are paying closer attention to shipping disruption, port capacity, insurance costs and delivery reliability. A diversified outbound network can help protect customer commitments and reduce dependence on any single route.

EGA Chief Executive Abdulnasser Bin Kalban said in the company announcement that the group had already made progress diversifying outbound logistics to ensure reliable deliveries, and described the Gulftainer agreement as another step forward. Gulftainer Group CEO Farid Belbouab said the arrangement was about building resilience for UAE trade by providing a strategic gateway to global markets.

The agreement also underscores the role of port operators in enabling the UAE’s industrial expansion. As manufacturers seek to move higher volumes of specialised goods, port infrastructure must accommodate not only container capacity but handling reliability, documentation efficiency and links to inland production sites.

For the broader UAE economy, the importance is clear: non-oil manufacturing growth depends on logistics systems that can move large volumes predictably. Aluminium is already one of the country’s strongest export categories. If the EGA-Gulftainer route scales as planned, it will add capacity and redundancy to a supply chain that connects UAE industry with customers across global markets.