Manufacturing

Aluminium Bahrain plans to acquire Aluminium Dunkerque, strengthening its global low-carbon aluminium strategy and European presence. (Image source: Alba)

Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) has announced plans to acquire Aluminium Dunkerque, the European Union’s largest aluminium smelter, in a deal valued at around US$2.2bn

The proposed transaction forms part of Alba’s ambition to establish a global low-carbon aluminium platform and was announced alongside current owner American Industrial Partners (AIP) and French public investment bank Bpifrance, which is set to become a minority shareholder in the business.

Following completion of the transaction, Alba will take full ownership of Aluminium Dunkerque through a deal valued at around US$2.2bn. The acquisition will be financed entirely through a consortium of Alba’s banking partners. Under the terms of the MoU, Bpifrance will invest €100mn in the transaction, securing a 6% shareholding in Aluminium Dunkerque, subject to the necessary regulatory and customary approvals. The investment bank will also be represented on the board of the smelter’s holding company.

The participation of Bpifrance as a minority shareholder and board member is intended to reinforce Aluminium Dunkerque’s strategic role within France’s industrial sector while strengthening its regional presence.

His Excellency Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said the agreement reflects the strong economic relationship between Bahrain and France while highlighting the confidence global investors continue to place in Bahrain. He noted that the deal further reinforces the Kingdom’s position as a competitive industrial centre with the talent and capabilities required to pursue opportunities internationally.

Khalid Amro Al-Rumaihi, chairman of Alba’s board of directors, emphasised the importance of Aluminium Dunkerque as a strategic French industrial asset. He described the acquisition as a significant milestone for Alba, demonstrating confidence in the company’s future growth potential while supporting the development of a more diversified and internationally competitive industrial platform. He added that the transaction creates opportunities to strengthen industrial resilience in both Bahrain and France while deepening economic and industrial cooperation between the two countries.

"Alongside Alba, Bpifrance’s investment in Aluminium Dunkerque underscores our commitment to securing and reinforcing the long-term future of this strategic industrial site. By joining forces, we are not only supporting the growth of a key player in the European aluminium sector but also ensuring that Aluminium Dunkerque remains a cornerstone of France’s industrial resilience and innovation. Together, we will work to strengthen the site’s industrial project, fostering sustainable development and competitiveness for years to come," remarked Nicolas Dufourcq, CEO at Bpifrance.

“We are pleased to mark an important step in the transition of Aluminium Dunkerque’s ownership to Aluminium Bahrain. Over the past four months, the process has advanced smoothly as expected thanks to the constructive work among all parties and a shared commitment to responsible execution. We remain confident that Alba is the right long-term owner for Aluminium Dunkerque and will be a strong partner for France in supporting the company’s continued development and strategic role in Europe. Aluminium Dunkerque’s success during our ownership reflects France’s enduring attractiveness as a destination for long-term industrial investment, supported by its strong industrial base, skilled workforce and commitment to decarbonisation,” concluded Dino Cusumano, general partner at AIP.

Based in Loon-Plage near Dunkerque, the facility has an annual production capacity of approximately 300,000 tonnes of aluminium. Supported by advanced automation systems, integrated operations and a skilled workforce, the smelter is well positioned to meet rising demand across Europe for low-carbon and sustainably produced aluminium.

EMSTEEL Group has introduced ES600, a new high-strength reinforcing steel product designed for demanding construction applications, marking the highest-grade rebar currently manufactured in the UAE.

The launch was unveiled at the company’s “Building the UAE’s Future Together” event held in Dubai on 21 May, where industry stakeholders from engineering, construction and manufacturing sectors gathered to explore how advanced materials are shaping the next phase of urban development across the country.

Developed for use in high-rise structures and large-scale infrastructure works, ES600 has been engineered to deliver enhanced structural performance while reducing overall material usage. The product is aligned with national industrial goals, including the UAE’s broader push towards advanced manufacturing and economic diversification under Operation 300bn.

Certified to meet both local and international standards, the rebar is designed to improve construction efficiency by reducing steel consumption by an estimated 18% to 24%, depending on project design and requirements. This reduction also helps ease logistical pressures by lowering transport volumes and minimising congestion on construction sites.

According to EMSTEEL, the efficiency gains also translate into environmental benefits. The company estimates that for every 10,000 tonnes of ES600 used, around 12,107 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions can be avoided through reduced material production and transportation requirements. In multi-storey buildings, this can equate to approximately one tonne of CO₂ savings per floor.

The material is already being deployed across a range of residential towers, mixed-use developments and major infrastructure projects throughout the UAE. Current and secured orders have exceeded 200,000 tonnes, reflecting strong demand from developers involved in large-scale urban expansion projects.

Eng. Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, Group Chief Executive Officer of EMSTEEL, said the introduction of ES600 reflects the UAE’s shift towards higher-value industrial production and more advanced engineering capability within the construction sector.

He noted that the company’s continued investment in innovation is aimed at strengthening local manufacturing capacity while supporting more efficient and resilient building practices. He also highlighted EMSTEEL’s role as a long-term industrial partner contributing to national economic diversification and infrastructure development goals.

Following the completion of its AED 625 million Asset Enhancement Programme, EMSTEEL is set to expand production capacity for ES600 and introduce upgraded processing systems to support higher-strength reinforcement products. The expansion is expected to further enhance operational efficiency and meet growing demand for sustainable construction materials across the region.

Rob McGreevy, chief product officer, AVEVA, speaking at AVEVA World 2026. (Image source: AVEVA)

AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software, announced new product innovations at its annual industrial intelligence conference AVEVA World 2026 in Milan, designed to help industrial organisations leverage their operational data for better decision making, stronger compliance, and AI-enhanced intelligent operations

For industrial organisations, the pressure to adopt AI is intensifying, and so are the underlying challenges: complex regulatory environments, a growing sustainability imperative, ageing infrastructure and fragmented data.

“For industrial enterprises, the challenge is not ambition but infrastructure. The promise of AI remains largely unrealised for most industrial teams because the operational data, engineering data, workflows, and compliance frameworks required to safely deploy AI at scale have rarely been connected in one place," said Rob McGreevy, chief product officer, AVEVA. "The innovations we are announcing are aimed at closing this gap, across every layer of the industrial technology stack.

“From engineering to operations to compliance, we’re continuing to embed AI and intelligence more deeply into industrial workflows, helping them move faster, manage complexity, and scale with confidence.”

AVEVA is extending its industrial intelligence platform CONNECT to Snowflake and ServiceNow, giving customers access to high-fidelity OT data within the tools they already use for analytics, industrial AI, automations, and machine learning.

A major CONNECT release is planned for Q1 2027, bringing a range of new capabilities, including an industrial knowledge graph that makes it faster to construct, enrich, and operationalise digital twins. The knowledge graph model is populated using a twin builder that applies agentic AI to propose intelligent mappings that align existing data sources to a standard data model.

Flows, set for release in Q2 2026, will enable the assembly and deployment of data processing pipelines for real-time cleansing, filtering, and transformation that simplifies data handling between systems and sources. The combination of flows, twin builder, and the industrial knowledge graph with CONNECT’s existing data management, visualisation, and AI capabilities further enhances the rapid realisation of the industrial digital twin with AI-ready data.

These integrations are supported by a deepening strategic partnership with Microsoft. Key joint capabilities include AI embedded in industrial operations, and a Customer-Hosted SaaS option for large enterprises with specific requirements around data sovereignty, security policy, and private network access.

Bringing AI to industrial operations

AVEVA is embedding AI directly into tools and workflows, from the operator interface to the engineering desktop, enabling teams to make faster, better-informed decisions.

From June 2026, AVEVA Operations Control updates will deliver unified visualisation across the full operational stack, seamlessly connecting HMI, SCADA, and enterprise systems via CONNECT with a consistent design language and a single operational data story.

AVEVA is also introducing expanded capabilities and updates for AVEVA Unified Engineering: Flows via CONNECT, will be integrated by Q2 2026, and Unified Engineering for marine design will be available in Q4 2026.

Across the AVEVA PI System portfolio, AVEVA is announcing a series of updates to make operational data more accessible, more scalable, and ready to support AI workloads, while maintaining required security and governance standards. Key innovations include enhancements to AVEVA PI Server to support analytics and AI-intensive workloads at enterprise scale; more efficient movement of PI Server data into CONNECT; and new web-based management experiences for AVEVA Adapters that simplify the configuration and scaling of industrial data collection. AVEVA PI Vision is also receiving enhancements to trend analysis, navigation, and usability, enabling faster insight extraction from high-volume PI data environments. Additionally, AVEVA is introducing AVEVA PI Audit Reporter, a new web-based audit trail review and reporting solution developed in collaboration with Cognizant.

According to IDTechEx analyst Lily-Rose Schuett, advances in coatings, graphene and critical material recovery are reshaping the global materials landscape, with growing demand for sustainable, high-performance solutions across sectors ranging from aerospace and EV batteries to energy and data centres.

In her analysis, “The Top of the Material Chain – Advanced Coatings to Critical Minerals”, Schuett highlights how advanced coatings are increasingly being adopted to improve durability, efficiency and safety. Citing IDTechEx research, she notes that the coatings market is currently valued at around US$202bn, with Germany, China and the US leading exports. Demand is being fuelled by industries seeking lightweight materials capable of withstanding extreme temperatures, particularly in aerospace and energy applications.

Schuett explains that advanced coatings are also being developed with sustainability in mind, as environmental regulations and consumer expectations push manufacturers towards PFAS-free and heavy metal-free alternatives. Applications highlighted in the research include improving fire safety in EV batteries, aerospace systems and data centres, while also reducing maintenance requirements in sectors such as wind energy, oil and gas, and construction.

The report further identifies manufacturing efficiency, coating performance and sustainability as the three main priorities shaping coating development. Desired properties include long shelf life, low viscosity, short curing times and lightweight composition, although balancing performance with sustainability remains application dependent.

Schuett also explores developments in graphene and other advanced materials. Graphene, a 2D nanocarbon material, is valued for its exceptional strength, thermal conductivity, electrical properties and gas impermeability. It is increasingly being used in thermal management systems, conductive inks, sensors, membranes, concrete and asphalt applications.

However, she notes that maintaining graphene quality remains a challenge, as pristine graphene sheets must be carefully transferred from their growth substrate to the final application without damage. Future developments may include genuine monolayer and bilayer graphene additives, as well as more sustainable production methods using green or waste-derived feedstocks such as methane, coke and end-of-life lithium-ion batteries.

According to Schuett, competition from materials such as carbon black and carbon nanotubes remains strong, yet the graphene sector continues to expand. IDTechEx forecasts the graphene market will surpass US$1bn by 2032, with continued growth expected over the following decade.

The analysis also examines the growing importance of critical material recovery as geopolitical tensions and supply chain risks increase pressure on global access to strategic materials. Critical materials, which include metals, elements and composites essential to key industries, are becoming increasingly important as countries seek greater supply security.

Schuett outlines several extraction and recovery methods covered in IDTechEx research, including hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, electro-leaching, solvent extraction, ion exchange, biosorption and electro-winning. Established secondary sources for material recovery include platinum group metals from automotive emission control systems, while emerging opportunities are centred on lithium-ion batteries and rare-earth magnets from EVs.

The report also evaluates extraction technologies based on factors such as scalability, energy consumption, waste-source versatility and circularity, reflecting the increasing emphasis on sustainability within the critical materials sector.