On January 2010, Mr Yousuf Bastaki, Emal's Project Director, accepted to answer five questions to Fives Solios regarding its performances during the Emal 1 project execution.
1. Are you satisfied with the progress of Emal project?
Yes, we are extremely satisfied. We always wanted to produce first metal on the 2nd of December, 2009 and we succeeded. At one stage of the project, it was challenging.
Sometimes, you have a vision and you have a team that sees the vision, the team gets committed to what you see and that’s what happened!
2. According to your opinion, what was the most important challenge on your project?
I would say that the suppliers and the market conditions were very challenging. But the most important challenge was “How to align the Project Teams”. People do things and make things happen… We had people from all over the world with different cultures, different backgrounds, and to align them to one goal and objective was for me a big challenge.
3. Has your Emal project been affected by the worldwide economic crisis?
Yes, but the impact on the project was positive in the way we felt that there was an ease on the demand from the suppliers, especially the construction resources.
The construction contractors in the UAE were more available and more willing to negotiate. That is why we did benefit from the crisis to a certain extent.
We were lucky because our financial closure happened in 2007 so we had money available. But one of the main challenges was to control the cost and the crisis really helped us to bring things back on budget.
4. Are you satisfied with the collaboration of the Solios Carbone’s team with Emal‘s team regarding the Bath Processing contract?
From my perspective in both plants, Dubal and Emal, we have open arms for all good suppliers like Fives Solios. We have seen good performances of Fives Solios in the past; at least my teams have seen it. We have seen much better performances from Fives Solios on Emal project. Even though it was a small project, it demonstrates the typical performance of the company. We are very happy that Fives Solios completed the Bath Crushing Plant on time, with very minimum headaches and teething problems that we normally expect.
My advice to all suppliers is that any customer would like to see a value for the money they have spent. Competition is not only by cost but competition is also by value adding.
Once Fives Solios have recognized that in any package, the main focus is the long life and value added to the plant in a very logical and transparent way; Fives Solios will have the confidence of the customer and will get a larger portion of the job.
Unfortunately when we came to tender the packages out, Fives Solios were already committed to other plants and did not give us a chance to make an offer and to be keen on taking a larger portion of the work.
Hopefully, this will change in the coming years, and we look forward to working with Fives Solios, especially now they have gained more experience in the region. They know more contractors and how to deal with sub contractors, the type of customers and their expectations.
I wish to add as a customer, we would like always to keep in touch with our suppliers by maintaining dialogues and continuous update of what‘s being produced and developed. That keeps you in the picture as a company willing to work with us as a partner and for us also to understand what‘s happening in the market: namely for Fives Solios in paste plant technology, bath processing, GTC technology, etc… to compare with other suppliers of technology.
5. What is, according to your opinion, the impact of such a mega project on the economic development of the UAE?
Emal will be a 1.5 million tons smelter between phases 1 and 2. It was established based on a very strategic decision by the UAE (but Abu Dhabi Government specifically) as a way to diversify its economical resources to avoid dependence on the oil industry only. Such a vast industrial zone was set up to attract downstream aluminium industries, to open up opportunities for new coming industries or existing industries, willing to expand in the region and to create opportunities for local companies. The initial idea was to establish an industry complementing what we already have in Dubai, utilizing local technology, local resources, and the abundance of UAE national people with technical degrees and professionalism, in order to be part of the regional development.