April 1 (Reuters) - Emirates Global Aluminium's Al Taweelah facility in the United Arab Emirates halted operations after an Iranian missile and drone attack on Saturday damaged a power plant, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in a research note on Wednesday.
Aluminum companies jumped in morning trading. Century Aluminum rose 7%; Alcoa and Kaiser Aluminum rose 6%.
The smelter belonging to Aluminium Bahrain ALBH.BH, or Alba, which was also targeted on Saturday, "sustained significant damages and is expected to operate at an estimated utilisation of 30%", Wood Mackenzie said.
EGA and Alba had said at the weekend they were assessing the extent of the damage to their sites, without specifying what had been affected.
An EGA spokesperson had no update on operations when asked to comment on Wood Mackenzie's note. Alba did not reply to a request for comment.
Wood Mackenzie's press office said its information was sourced from the consultancy's contacts in the Middle East, but declined to provide further details.
Al Taweelah, in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, is home to a roughly 1.5-million-metric-ton-per-year capacity aluminium smelter and an alumina refinery. Alba's capacity of 1.6 million tons per year in Bahrain makes it the world's biggest single-site aluminium smelter.
"The ongoing Middle East conflict is triggering a critical supply crisis in the global aluminium market, with disruptions potentially removing 3–3.5 million tons of output in 2026," Wood Mackenzie said.
The world produced just under 74 million tons of primary aluminium last year.
