Gulf aluminum pursues global deals as Hormuz crisis accelerates shift
Gulf aluminum exporters are targeting global deals amid fallout from the US-Israel-Iran war, which has pushed prices to multiyear highs in early June.
As global attention fixates on oil and gas prices, the US-Israel-Iran war has also roiled industrial supply chains for aluminum, a commodity critical to everything from soda cans and smartphones to SpaceX rockets.
The world relies on Gulf states for about 8% to 9% of aluminum production, with disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz removing a sizable chunk of global supply in 2026 — while raising questions about long-term industry exposure to regional risks. Amid fallout from the crisis, which has pushed aluminum prices to multiyear highs, the Middle East’s top producers have been notably active as they confront new threats to their regional operations.
On June 2, Bahrain's Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) agreed to acquire France's Aluminium Dunkerque, the largest aluminum smelter in the European Union, in a $2.2 billion deal. Word of the transaction first surfaced in early March. The acquisition followed an April announcement by Emirates Global Aluminum that it intended to acquire an 80% stake in Italian aluminum recycling company Eco Green.
While neither deal appears directly conceived because of the war, analysts say they fit into a broader trend toward geographical diversification that the Hormuz crisis has reinforced. Both Alba and EGA were already pursuing global diversification before the conflict erupted, but recent wartime deals suggest Gulf producers are accelerating efforts to expand their footprint beyond the region — potentially reshaping the geographic concentration of an industry underpinning strategic growth sectors, from AI data centers to solar panels.
