With cheap fuel and a host of aluminium producers, Gulf countries are being encouraged to build a car manufacturing sector to challenge the traditional global hubs.
Industry executives believe the growing number of cars bought in the Gulf, coupled with low fuel costs and the huge aluminium smelters planned, means the region is well placed to begin assembling cars and component parts at lower costs to global prices.
Aluminium is becoming an increasingly important material in the manufacture of cars as it is lighter than steel and reduces carbon emissions by 25 to 40 per cent.
"It has to be about cooperation [between Gulf countries]," said Ahmed Sorour, the chief executive of Qatar Automotive Gateway (QAR), on the sidelines of the Aluminium 2012 conference held last week in Dubai.
QAR is a new initiative to build a cluster of car component manufacturers in the Gulf, leveraging the region's aluminium production and its strategic geographical location.
Targets are being put in place in both Europe and the US to reduce emissions from cars in the next 10 years, giving manufacturers an incentive to examine products such as aluminium. Audi, Jaguar and Mercedes are all now heavily using aluminium.
"We can easily increase performance and fuel efficiency with aluminium products. This is the low-hanging fruit," said Mr Sorour.
The traditional major car producers are China, Germany, Japan and Korea, with new countries such as Thailand and Australia making ground in assembly and component parts.
Mr Sorour wants to establish aluminium component makers and lithium-ion batteries to supply to car manufacturers globally at lower prices, given the lower labour and fuel costs, along with the ready supply of aluminium from regional smelters such as Qatalum, Emirates Aluminium (Emal) and Dubai Aluminium Company (Dubal).
Dubal is one of the world's biggest producers of the metal and Abu Dhabi's Emal is investing billions of dollars in infrastructure.
Together, Emal and Dubal are capable of producing about 1.75 million tonnes of aluminium a year.
Qatalum, an equal joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Hydro Aluminium of Norway, can produce 585,000 tonnes per year and Aluminium Bahrain produces more than 870,000 tonnes per year.
"Unfortunately, we do not find the cooperation platform in the region," said Mr Sorour.
"There is a competition trend rather than a cooperation one, which is bad."
Countries within the Gulf have started to establish car component plants or assembly of commercial vehicles, but nothing on a major scale or region-wide.
In 2004, Volkswagen and Abu Dhabi had talked about investing Dh2 billion (US$544.49 million) to Dh5bn in building a cluster of car component manufacturers, while a manufacturing plant was built for Ashok Leyland commercial vehicles in Ras Al Khaimah in 2010.
There are also relatively small assembly plants in Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.
rjones@thenational.ae
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Company%20Profile
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In numbers
1,000 tonnes of waste collected daily:
- 800 tonnes converted into alternative fuel
- 150 tonnes to landfill
- 50 tonnes sold as scrap metal
800 tonnes of RDF replaces 500 tonnes of coal
Two conveyor lines treat more than 350,000 tonnes of waste per year
25 staff on site
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3.0%20twin-turbo%20inline%20six-cylinder%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eeight-speed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E503hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E600Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efrom%20Dh450%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
WE%20NO%20LONGER%20PREFER%20MOUNTAINS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Inas%20Halabi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENijmeh%20Hamdan%2C%20Kamal%20Kayouf%2C%20Sheikh%20Najib%20Alou%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Sam Smith
Where: du Arena, Abu Dhabi
When: Saturday November 24
Rating: 4/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.