Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba)’s sponsorship support worth US$ 10,000 (BD 3,770) for the 2nd Annual Asian Petcoke Conference – which was held from October 3 – 5, 2011 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Dubai, UAE – underscores the company’s commitment to remain closely involved with ongoing developments in the petcoke market at both the regional and global level. The 2nd Annual Asian Petcoke Conference was held under the theme: Impending Change. The conference looked at the implications of the gradual shift of the petcoke industry from the west to the east, and examined how this change impacted the industry as a whole. A galaxy of distinguished speakers representing the leading international companies dealing with petcoke addressed some of the issues and challenges facing the industry. Alba’s Manager for Procurement & Warehousing, Ali Al Baqali and Manager for Strategic Supply & Planning, Marius Esterhuizen attended the conference. Commenting on the company’s participation in the 2nd Annual Asian Petcoke Conference, Alba’s Chief Executive, Laurent Schmitt said: “Alba is proud to support this key conference that examined the implications of the potential shift of the petcoke industry’s centre of operations from the West to the East. With distinguished speakers from across the world, the conference provided a platform to discuss some of the evolving strategies, new paradigms and challenges that would accompany any change. In the past 40 years, Alba has been one of the pioneers in the industry, and is credited to be one of two aluminium smelters in the world to have a dedicated petroleum coke calciner plant.” Alba’s petroleum coke calciner plant was commissioned in May 2001, and was built on 140,000 sq.m of reclaimed land at Alba’s marine terminal. Total annual production of calcined petroleum coke is 550,000 metric tones per annum. It is used as a major raw material in the production of carbon anodes used in the aluminium smelting process. Having a dedicated petroleum coke calciner plant in Alba’s strengthens the company’s strategy of self-reliance and eliminates the need to import calcined coke.