Emirates Global Aluminium expects its Al Taweelah smelter to return to full production by the first quarter of 2027, its chief financial officer said, as the Abu Dhabi-based producer works to repair damage inflicted by an Iranian strike earlier this year.

The guidance, delivered by CFO Pal Kildemo in an interview with Bloomberg's Abeer Abu Omar on Horizons Middle East & Africa, came as EGA reported nine-month revenue of $5.3 billion, down from $6.3 billion in the same period a year earlier. Profit also fell, according to reports on the results, as the conflict disrupted the company's aluminium sales, logistics and plant operations.

The numbers lay out a two-track story that has played out across the coverage of the past week: an industrial recovery that is real but slow, and a financial hit that is already locked into the year's accounts.

A smelter coming back in stages

Al Taweelah is one of the largest single-site aluminium smelters in the world and sits at the centre of EGA's integrated model, pairing primary metal production with a nearby alumina refinery that feeds it. Both were damaged in the strike, and both are being brought back on separate timetables.

• Alumina refinery: restored to roughly 70% of capacity, according to Reuters, which first reported the restart benchmark.
• Reduction cells: about 25% of the electrolysis cells at the Al Taweelah smelter are back in service, a milestone carried in separate reports on the company's progress.
• Full smelter production: targeted for the first quarter of 2027, per the CFO's guidance to Bloomberg.
• Recycling expansion: delayed, Reuters reported, without a revised date.

The gap between those figures explains the long runway to full output. Restarting reduction cells is not a matter of flipping a switch: pots that have been taken offline must be relined, re-heated and brought back gradually to avoid damaging the cathodes, and each line must be re-stabilised before it can run at rated current. Getting a quarter of the cells back is meaningful progress, but it is a fraction of the way to the capacity EGA is promising by early 2027.

EGA says it is making strong progress on restoring production at its main smelter, which was damaged in an Iranian strike earlier this year - the company's assessment of the repair effort, relayed by CFO Pal Kildemo to Bloomberg.

Why the refinery matters as much as the smelter

The alumina refinery is the less visible but arguably more consequential piece of the recovery. Alumina is the feedstock for aluminium smelting, and EGA built the Al Taweelah refinery partly to reduce its dependence on imported raw material. When the refinery is running below capacity, the smelter either pays more for third-party alumina or runs below its own potential - a double squeeze on margins that shows up directly in the revenue line.

A refinery at 70% and a smelter at roughly a quarter of its cells means EGA is simultaneously short of feedstock and short of the capacity to consume it. That mismatch is one reason the company has not guided to a faster financial rebound.

The financial toll

The $1 billion year-on-year decline in nine-month revenue reflects lost volumes, disrupted shipments and the cost of repairs and idle capacity. Aluminium is a thin-margin, energy-intensive business where smelter economics depend on running at high utilisation; every percentage point of curtailed output erodes unit costs and fixed-cost absorption.

The earnings decline also lands in a market where Gulf producers have become increasingly important. The Middle East accounts for roughly a tenth of global primary aluminium output, and the region's smelters are major suppliers to Europe, Asia and North America. Any sustained outage tightens a market that is sensitive to supply headlines, and helps explain why the strike drew attention well beyond the UAE.

Different lenses on the same story

The four reports converge on the facts but diverge sharply in emphasis. Bloomberg led with the forward-looking story: a CFO on the record with a concrete date for full production, framed as a recovery narrative for investors. Reuters took the granular operational route, leading with the refinery's return to 70% of capacity and flagging the delay to EGA's recycling project - a detail with strategic weight, since recycling is central to the industry's decarbonisation plans. The aggregated coverage split the story in two, running one headline on the 25% restoration of reduction cells and another on the fall in profit and revenue.

Read together, the framings are complementary rather than contradictory: the operational milestone is genuine, the financial damage is genuine, and the timeline to normalisation is long enough that neither headline tells the whole story on its own.

What to watch

Three markers will determine whether the recovery stays on schedule. First, the pace of cell restarts through the next two quarters - a figure that should climb well above 25% before the 2027 target looks credible. Second, whether the alumina refinery can move from 70% toward full rates, easing the feedstock constraint. Third, the recycling project's revised timeline, which matters for EGA's longer-term positioning as customers demand lower-carbon metal.

For now, the company's message is one of steady repair and a date certain. The market's question is whether a smelter running at a fraction of capacity can hold its customer base intact until that date arrives.