Middle East Business
The UAE Ministry of Investment signs with Sunstone to bring a 300 million dollar anode plant into operation
By Staff Writer | 8 September 2026
The memorandum commits the ministry to steer the Chinese anode maker through licensing, free zones, ports and customs for the plant it is building with Emirates Global Aluminium, a 300,000 tonne a year facility that is to replace most of the smelter's anode imports, with construction starting this year and first production as early as 2028.
The UAE Ministry of Investment has signed a memorandum of understanding with Sunstone Development, the Beijing-headquartered anode producer, to support the company's establishment and licensing in the UAE and the development of a 300 million dollar anode production facility. The signing was announced on 7 September 2026.
The plant itself was settled last December. Sunstone and Emirates Global Aluminium signed a joint venture agreement on 16 December 2025 under which Sunstone holds 55 per cent and EGA 45 per cent, with the two partners expecting to invest approximately 300 million dollars in proportion to their shareholdings. Sunstone is to build the plant on behalf of the joint venture, with EGA as financial investor and offtaker. Construction was to begin in 2026 and first anode production is expected as early as 2028.
The facility will have a capacity of 300,000 tonnes of anodes a year. EGA produces some 1.35 million tonnes of anodes at its Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah plants and imports the rest of its requirement; the new plant is to replace most of those imports and make the UAE one of only a few countries exporting anodes.
What the ministry has undertaken to do
Under the memorandum the ministry will coordinate with the relevant authorities and connect Sunstone to free zones and industrial parks, port operators and customs authorities, chambers of commerce and industry associations, and to government-led trade missions, investment summits and industry platforms. The ministry and Sunstone will establish a joint working group, chaired by the ministry, to oversee delivery of the project.
The memorandum was signed by Mohammad Abdulrahman Alhawi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Investment, and Lang Guanghui, Chairman of Sunstone Development. Alhawi said that investment ties between the UAE and China continue to grow, with China now the fourth-largest source of foreign direct investment stock in the UAE, and that the ministry's role beyond attracting the investment decision is to stand alongside investors through their journey in the country.
This hands-on support is central to strengthening local industrial capabilities, bringing advanced technologies and expertise into the country, and advancing the UAE's economic diversification agenda.
Mohammad Abdulrahman Alhawi, Undersecretary of the UAE Ministry of Investment
Sunstone's first plant outside China
The UAE facility is Sunstone's first plant outside China. In December, EGA described the company as the world's largest independent producer of pre-baked anodes, and the two had signed a series of early-stage agreements as the project plan developed, most recently a joint development agreement at the Make it in the Emirates Forum in May 2025. The ministry places the project under the Make It In The Emirates initiative and the Operation 300bn industrial strategy.
This MoU marks an important step in Sunstone Development's international growth. The UAE's business, investment, and industrial environment makes it the right platform from which to scale with confidence, giving us access to the talent we need and to clear, supportive regulatory frameworks, alongside world-class infrastructure and connectivity.
Lang Guanghui, Chairman of Sunstone Development
The ministry's statement adds that China contributed 3.9 billion dollars of greenfield foreign direct investment to the UAE in 2025 and that nearly 16,500 Chinese trade licences were active in the country at the end of July 2025, up more than 18 per cent on a year earlier.
What has not been stated
Neither the ministry nor the two partners has named the site of the plant, the free zone or industrial park in which it will sit, the construction contractor, the engineering consultant, or the date on which construction actually started or will start within 2026. Anodes are required in the smelting of aluminium, and EGA is the plant's offtaker, so its customer is fixed; what remains open is where and by whom it will be built.