August 12, 2024. Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest ‘premium aluminium’ producer in the world, announced the world’s first bauxite cargo shipment using a liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueled vessel.
The shipment, in a Capesize ship, is carrying bauxite mined by EGA subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation to a customer in China.
The bauxite shipment is onboard the Ubuntu Empathy, an LNG dual-fueled vessel operated by Anglo American and chartered by EGA. The vessel is one of Anglo American’s 10-strong chartered fleet of lower emission LNG dual-fueled vessels.
Capesize vessels are amongst the largest bulk cargo carriers in the world, and are up to 300 metres long – the length of two football fields – and 50 metres wide. Capesize vessels can carry around 180 thousand tonnes of bauxite ore.
EGA predominantly uses Capesize vessels to ship bauxite ore from the Republic of Guinea to the company’s alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi and to third-party customers around the world. Last year, EGA exported some 14.1 million wet metric tonnes of bauxite from Guinea.
