Industry

Bahrain is investing heavily in expanding its industrial sector, as the non-oil sector continues to drive growth in the kingdom. The oil and gas sector grew by 3% in 2014, while the non-hydrocarbons sectors expanded by 4.9%. In the first quarter of 2015, manufacturing was up 5.9% year-on-year. In June 2015 Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) announced it would be going ahead with a sixth production line, a $3.5bn project designed to boost annual production by 55%, or 514,000 tonnes, to 1.45m tonnes, making it the world’s biggest single-site smelter. The aluminium industry represents a major contributor to both GDP and export revenues. According to the Economic Development Board, the two most valuable non-oil export commodities from January to May 2015 were aluminium wires, worth $234m, and aluminium rods, worth $196.5m.

This chapter contains an interview with Tim Murray, CEO, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba).