Norwegian industrial group Norsk Hydro said on Sunday it would build a $3 billion aluminium plant in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar in a joint venture with state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP). "The project will cost roughly around $3 billion. The financing has yet to be determined," Norsk Hydro CEO Eivind Reiten told reporters, adding QP would own 51 percent and Norsk Hydro 49 percent of the 570,000-tonne plant.
Reiten said Norsk Hydro would provide 51 percent of the financing while QP would fund the rest. Production was expected to start in 2008 and the plant would reach full capacity in 2009. Qatar aims to raise output to 1 million tonnes.
In May 2003, Qatar's privately owned United Development Company (UDC) and Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) signed a joint venture deal worth an estimated $2.1 billion to build a 516,000 tonne aluminium smelter at Ras Lafffan.
After Dubal left the project in December 2003, UDC said it would pursue building the smelter in Qatar but the fate of the project remains unclear.
The Gulf region is already home to two primary aluminium producers, Dubal and Aluminium Bahrain, with a combined capacity of over 1 million tonnes per year.