Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the largest aluminium smelters in the world, said its production figures grew 1.7 per cent in the first half to hit 443,533 metric tonnes (MT) compared to 436,256 MT during the same period last year.

Announcing this on Sunday, Alba chief executive Laurent Schmitt said the company was able to manage its sales figures despite global economic uncertainties with the sales figures topping 446,044 in the first half, a slight increase of 675 MT compared to 445,370 MT in the same period of 2011.

'Alba’s success in adopting lean management techniques as well as Six Sigma reinforces the strong fundamentals of the company and has set the tone of delivering enhanced competitiveness in our operations,' Schmitt stated.

'Our sales and production figures reflect the company’s operational focus on delivering progress while facing challenges - recent LME downward trend,' he added.

According to him, the value-added (VA) sales continued to gain momentum in the second quarter reaching 67 per cent up from 63 per cent in first quarter.

For the first half, Alba averaged 65 per cent for VA sales slightly below 67 per cent in H1 2011 due to the slowdown in Europe in the first quarter of 2012, he stated.

'We are confident that with our dedicated workforce, Alba is well-placed to remain on track for the remainder of 2012,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service