Saudi Arabia's bauxite import estimated to drop in 2017

Saudi Arabian aluminium industry is growing immensely in last few years after the country decided to venture out of the oil sector to develop a parallel non-oil economy.

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A joint venture between the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) and Alcoa Ma’aden Aluminium (MA), Ma’aden Aluminium is a significant contributor to the growth of the Saudi Arabian economy. With its ongoing projects in bauxite mining and alumina refining the company is inching towards becoming the largest and most efficient integrated aluminium complex in the world.

Ma’aden has the only operating alumina refinery in the Gulf region and it imports the large part of its bauxite from various bauxite producing regions. As shown by our data, Saudi Arabia imported about 3463 tons of bauxite in 2015. In 2016, the country imported about 4365 tons of bauxite driven by the consumption growth by the domestic alumina refinery. Considering the data for the last two years, for 2017, Saudi Arabia is estimated to import 2795 tons of bauxite. The Al Ba’itha mine, the first bauxite mine in the Middle East, is expected to contribute domestic bauxite to the refinery in 2017. When fully operational, the mine will produce over 4 million tonnes of bauxite ore per year.

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The cost of bauxite import stood at USD 1.5 million in 2015. In 2016, the import generated a cost of USD 607 thousands. Based on the trends in last two years, the cost of import for bauxite in 2017 is estimated to be USD 597 thousands.

According to latest statistics, Saudi Arabia imports the largest amount of bauxite from India and China.