Aluminium smelters in the United Arab Emirates

This file concerns the aluminium smelter and water desalination plant operated in Dubai by Dubai Aluminium Company Limited (DUBAL). It contains files and correspondence concerning:

• The indebtedness of DUBAL and delays in paying contractors; the risk of a loan default and the provision of a loan indulgence; and the failure of the Government of Dubai to ensure DUBAL’s financial liquidity due to the ill health of the Ruler Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum
• Guarantees extended by the UK's Export Credits Guarantee Department
• The question of how Dubai's Minister of Finance and chairman of DUBAL Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum will maintain the company's funding
• An accident at the Dubai smelter causing delays to production, for which Hawker Siddeley Group were partly responsible
• Construction problems at the smelter
• The provision of gas from Abu Dhabi for DUBAL
• DUBAL’s plans to increase aluminium production and desalination capacity, and to begin salt production

This file also concerns:

• Proposals for the establishment of an aluminium smelter in Abu Dhabi by Southwire Company and George Wimpey Limited
• Interest in constructing smelters in Oman and Qatar