Dubai Cable Building First Aluminum Plant as Copper Losing - Bloomberg Business

Dubai Cable Building First Aluminum Plant as Copper Losing - Bloomberg Business:



"Dubai Cable Co., the second-largest cable manufacturer in the Middle East, is building its first aluminum plant as customers in Saudi Arabia to the U.S. seek cheaper alternatives to copper for power transmission.



The $60 million factory in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates will have capacity to produce 50,000 metric tons of aluminum rod and overhead conductors annually, Andrew Shaw, managing director of Dubai Cable, said in an interview Monday at the company’s copper rod plant in Dubai. The project, called Ducab Aluminium Co., will create 120 to 140 jobs with its opening planned for the first quarter of 2016, he said.



Copper is losing about 2 percent a year of demand to less costly materials such as aluminum, or about 500,000 tons, London-based researcher CRU estimates. Aluminum is a third the cost of copper and supplies of aluminum in warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange are almost 12 times higher."



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