The late Sheikh Rashid established Dubai Aluminium Company Limited (DUBAL) in 1979. With revenue of over US$2 billion and 4,100 employees, Dubal owns and operates the largest modern aluminium smelter in the world.
The complex, which is located on a 480-hectare site in Jebel Ali comprises “a one million metric tonne per annum primary aluminium smelter, a 2,350 megawatt power station (at 30°C)” (Dubal, Delivering excellence: Premium quality, highest purity products 3). In addition to this, Dubal has a “30 million gallon per day water desalination plant, laboratories and research facilities, port and storage facilities, maintenance areas and associated administration buildings” (Dubal, Growing stronger together).
The products from Dubal manufacturers are in three main forms including “foundry alloy for automotive applications; extrusion billet for construction, industrial and transportation purposes; billets for forging processes in automotive industries; and high purity aluminium for the electronics and aerospace industries” (Dubal, Delivering excellence: Premium quality, highest purity products 4).
In addition to producing high quality finished aluminium products, Dubal provides both direct and indirect employment opportunities to thousands of people around the world. These job opportunities are in the form of outsourcing and local purchases of goods and services.
Dubal also plays a significant role in the community by supporting various initiatives and sponsorships, which influence the socio-economic development of Dubai and he UAE. The management of Dubal has continued to foster innovations in the mill products industry in order to improve productivity while reducing negative environmental impact through enhanced energy efficiency and reduced emission levels (Dubal, Growing stronger together 6).
Dubal is an excellent business organization that has been recognized by the United Arab Emirates as one of the most successful companies with a reliable market (Usawa 11). It is known for its political and economic stability as it has recorded incredibly low levels of crime unlike the Saudi Arabian economy, which is unstable due various external factors including wars, oil disputes and political interference.
The country has massive debts that are yet to be paid off, hence, dragging behind its economic growth. Dubal has proficient workers and uses sophisticated technology to produce quality goods and services compared to its competitors, such as Arabia. Consequently, Dubal has a wide trade network that has attracted many investors both in the UAE and outside, after the old decree that restricted external investors was lifted (Usawa 28).
In 2008, DUBAL was also affected by the dynamics of the global economic recession, though it was strategically positioned to overcome the challenges. DUBAL continued in its efforts to reduce costs and improve tits efficiency of operations, which helped to reduce liquidity and financial risk.
This way, DUBAL was able to hold its market position by meeting the expectations of their clients in 44 countries around the world. The continued success of DUBAL is attributed to various factors including long-standing relationships with suppliers based on delivery of high quality materials, followed by prompt payments.
During the recession period, DUBAL maintained its international projects, such as the alumina refinery in Brazil, and other upstream projects in Guinea and Cameroon. Besides the formation of strategic partnerships, DUBAL has managed to maintain its spell of success by building its corporate governance. In order to uphold its image, DUBAL commits to high ethical and governance standards (Leroux 34).
DUBAL achieved various ISO certificates including for Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) and Occupational Health & Safety, among others. The ability to benchmark its operations against the world’s best provided DUBAL with an appropriate measure through which it would evaluate its ambitious growth plans.
The highly customized business applications of DUBAL were a key limitation to the organization’s plans of globalization. DUBAL was unable to attain the required level of IT scalability and flexibility that would support its expansion due to poor functionality and integration. The implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning applications by SAP helped in the automation and integration of business processes.
This, in turn, helped to reduce maintenance and support expenses, eliminate the threat of system obsolescence, save on time and cost of reconciling discrepancies and fixing errors, and provide correct and timely information to decision makers. The technological innovations also helped to reduce the environmental impact, enhance the versatility of engineering processes, enhance information security, improve reporting capabilities, reduce administration costs, and provide commodity-pricing support (Usawa 32).
One of the challenges that Dubal needs to overcome in order to increase its global ranking as a producer of primary aluminium is to reduce its power costs in the desalination plant. Through the implementation of SCADA as a management platform, the company is able to optimize its electric power assets and desalination operations.
In addition to this, Dubal has made core business investments by entering into a joint Protocol with Mubadala Development Company, which will oversee the establishment of the EMAL smelter complex in Abu Dhabi (Dubal, Delivering excellence: Premium quality, highest purity products). The complex will utilize the synergy of Dubal’s aluminium technology and expertise and Abu Dhabi’s energy and industrial development plans to become competitive low-cost smelters in the industry.
Dubal has also made upstream investments in order to secure the supply of raw materials (Leroux 16). As one of the largest non-oil contributors to the economy, Dubal is well placed to grow and become a global leader in the production of primary aluminium.
Works Cited
Dubal. Delivering excellence: Premium quality, highest purity products. Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Harvard Business School, 2011.
Dubal. “Growing stronger together.” Corporate review (2009): 2-9.
Leroux, Marcel. Factors Influencing the Market Economy. New York: Springer, 2005. Print.
Usawa, Shinto. Economic Growth and Stabilization. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.