Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) and ITOCHU Corporation of Japan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to cooperate on aluminium production growth, decarbonisation, and the development of UAE industries in EGA’s supply chain.
The agreement was signed at the Japan-UAE Business Forum in Abu Dhabi, witnessed by H.H. Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the UAE’s newsagency WAM wrote in a report.
EGA’s relationship with ITOCHU stretches back to the 1980s, with the Japanese company marketing EGA’s metal to customers in Japan and Japanese companies’ operations abroad, the report noted.
The new agreement builds on an MOU signed late last year in Tokyo to leverage both companies’ industrial capabilities in opportunities that complement EGA’s existing operations in the UAE.
Abdulnasser bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said, “EGA and ITOCHU have worked together for decades, and our partnership has been an important part of the trade relationship between the UAE and Japan. We look forward to expanding this partnership further, to the benefit of our companies and both nations.”
Agreeing with him, Keita Ishii, President and Chief Operating Officer of ITOCHU Corporation, said, “The commercial relationship between ITOCHU and the UAE is amongst the most significant our two nations share. Our goal now is to deepen our work together to help meet the growing demand for aluminium over the decades ahead.”