Monday, March 24th, 2008

Community ‘thumbs up’ for Sohar Aluminium

THE project sites of Sohar Aluminium received a collective tick of approval from the Sohar region’s community leaders during an extended tour on Wednesday 19 March 2008.

Wali of Sohar, H.E. Sayed Hilal bin Bader Al-Busaidy; Deputy Wali of Liwa, Sheikh Saud bin Hilal Al Shaqsi, and 30 sheikhs from local communities in Sohar and Liwa toured the smelter and power plant sites and also visited the Sohar Aluminium facility at the Sohar Port.

“The purpose of the visit was to show our community leaders the progress of the smelter project and help them understand the significance of Sohar Aluminium to the surrounding communities,” said Dr Hilal Al Hinai, Sohar Aluminium General Manager – Commercial and Corporate Affairs.

“To date, our project has injected almost $US400 million into the local economy through Omani businesses and contractors and we have employed around 540 young Omanis, many of whom are from the Al Batinah region and in particular from Sohar, Liwa, Shinas and Saham. Supporting and investing in local people, the community and industry is a key objective of our company.”

The VIP group, along with Sohar Aluminium Chief Executive Tony Kinsman and the company’s senior management team, met a number of staff during their visit, as the 900-strong workforce prepares for the smelter’s start-up in June this year. Seasoned smelter experts also traveled with the group to explain elements of the construction and aluminium production as well as answer questions from the interested participants.

“Naturally, community leaders have concerns about how large companies such as ours will impact on the residents’ lives,” Dr Al Hinai said. “We wanted to be proactive in inviting them to visit our sites, answer their questions and assure them that our common goal is to ensure community impact is positive and mutually beneficial.”

The visitors were also shown the area set aside at Sohar Industrial Estate for the new aluminium downstream industry, where SAG, a joint venture between Takamul Investments and Austrian Salzburger Aluminium AG, opened its factory doors earlier in the week. The company will purchase 20,000 tones of liquid aluminium metal from Sohar Aluminium per year.

“The sale of this metal to a local company, rather than exporting the metal, will result in additional employment opportunities and will generate new income streams for the companies involved, as well as for the people in the Batinah region,” Dr Al Hinai said.