Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has confirmed it has declared force majeure on some contracts following disruption to its operations.

“We are doing everything possible to support our customers during this difficult period,” the company said in a statement to Gulf Business.

“EGA has substantial metal stock on the water, and on the ground in the UAE and some overseas locations. Many customers remain unaffected but we have had to declare force majeure in some cases for certain products,” the company added.

The confirmation follows disruption at EGA’s Al Taweelah smelter in Abu Dhabi, which was impacted amid Iranian missile and drone strikes on 28 March.

On 3 April, EGA warned that it could take up to 12 months to fully restore production at the Al Taweelah facility, pointing to a sustained period of disruption for global aluminium markets.

The plant produced approximately 1.6 million tonnes of aluminium in 2025, making it one of the world’s largest smelters and a key supplier to international manufacturers.

Supply chain pressure builds

The development highlights growing strain across the global aluminium market, as geopolitical tensions in the Gulf continue to ripple through industrial supply chains.

The Middle East accounts for roughly 9 per cent of global aluminium production, with EGA playing a central role in supplying manufacturers across Europe, Asia and the US.

Even before direct damage to production assets, Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a critical artery for global energy and raw materials — had already constrained the movement of key inputs needed for aluminium production.

Industry participants are now warning of a potential cascade of production cuts if normal shipping conditions are not restored in the near term.

Aluminium futures on the London Metal Exchange have surged since the conflict escalated in late February, reflecting tightening supply expectations.

Prices rose more than 1.6 per cent to $3511.3 per tonne on Friday, marking a third consecutive weekly gain.

Mubadala Investment Company said on Thursday that its assets under management rose 17 per cent in 2025 to Dhs1.4tn ($385bn), supported by higher capital deployment, strong proceeds and broad gains across its global and domestic portfolio.

The Abu Dhabi sovereign investor said five- and ten-year annualised returns stood at 10.7 per cent and 10.3 per cent respectively, underscoring what it described as consistent long-term performance across cycles.

Capital deployment rose 20 per cent to Dhs143bn. In comparison, proceeds increased 27 per cent to Dhs138bn, reflecting what the company said was a record level of investment activity across geographies and asset classes.

Mubadala said its UAE investments platform contributed Dhs45bn to GDP, equivalent to 5.7 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s non-oil GDP, while directly and indirectly supporting 98,000 jobs in Abu Dhabi, a 51 per cent increase since 2021.

“The strength of Mubadala’s performance in 2025 reflects the long-term strategy to invest in key sectors of growth in the UAE and abroad,” MD and group CEO Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak said.

He added that the group continued to deploy capital in line with the UAE’s economic diversification strategy and remained resilient amid global uncertainty.

2025 was one of the most active years for Mubadala

Chief financial officer Carlos Obeid said 2025 was one of the most active years for Mubadala, with record deployment and proceeds reflecting the scale and maturity of its platform. He said the company maintained a strong liquidity position supported by diversified funding sources, enabling it to remain flexible in shifting global markets.

Mubadala said its domestic platform continued to support national economic development through a series of strategic initiatives, including the launch of Aldar Capital, a real asset investment platform in partnership with Aldar, which plans to launch a $1bn (Dhs3.7bn) fund targeting global institutional investors.

It also highlighted the creation of Mubadala Bio, a national life sciences platform operating 10 global facilities and beginning local manufacturing of eight essential medicines during 2025, aimed at strengthening pharmaceutical supply chains and supporting national drug security.

In infrastructure and energy, Emirates Global Aluminium advanced plans for a new primary aluminium plant in the US alongside development of next-generation smelting technology, while Masdar broke ground on what it described as the world’s largest renewable energy project, integrating solar and battery storage, capable of delivering 1 gigawatt of baseload renewable power.

Mubadala also announced a Dhs 60bn-plus expansion of Abu Dhabi’s financial district on Al Maryah Island in partnership with Aldar, reinforcing the emirate’s positioning as a global financial hub.

In healthcare and technology, M42 launched a programme with Oracle Health to create unified patient records across the UAE, integrating data from the Emirate Genome Programme into electronic health records to support pharmacogenomic insights at the point of care.

MGX expanded its AI and infrastructure investments, including participation in the acquisition of Aligned Data Centres through the AI Infrastructure Partnership with BlackRock and GIP, and partnerships with Bpifrance, Mistral AI and Nvidia to develop a major AI campus in the Paris region.

Globally, Mubadala said it remained highly active across North America, Europe and Asia, deploying capital across private credit, infrastructure, healthcare, education and industrial platforms.

Key transactions included a $1bn (Dhs3.7bn) private credit partnership with Fortress, reinvestment in PCI Pharma Services alongside Bain Capital and Kohlberg, and participation in the take-private of Endeavor Group with Silver Lake.

It also sold a 24 per cent minority stake in Arcadia Consumer Healthcare following a period in which the company’s revenue tripled, invested $600m (Dhs2.2bn) in Nord Anglia Education, and acquired a minority stake in Techem as part of a EUR6.7bn (Dhs28.8bn) transaction focused on energy efficiency and decarbonisation.

Other deals included a 30 per cent stake in Loscam alongside Trustar Capital and Sinotrans, a $253m (Dhs929m) investment in Paris and New York retail properties via Ardian, and a €300m (Dhs 1.29bn) commitment to Rezolv Energy with Actis to expand renewable power in Central and Eastern Europe.

Mubadala also committed $500m (Dhs1.84bn) to Ardian infrastructure secondaries with an option for an additional $500m, and invested in Trucordia alongside Carlyle through a structured minority instrument.

Mubadala Capital completed the CAD$12.1bn (Dhs32.2bn) take-private of CI Financial, bringing its assets under management, advisory and administration to more than $430bn (Dhs1.58tn) through its asset management platforms.

The company said its indirect investment arm ADIC deployed $19bn (Dhs70bn) during 2025 with leading global fund managers.

Increased exposure to AI

Mubadala said it also increased exposure to artificial intelligence and advanced technologies through additional commitments to MGX, including support for large-scale AI infrastructure initiatives and European data and computing projects.

The company reiterated that it does not publish annual revenue or net income, instead focusing on multi-year return metrics aligned with its long-term sovereign mandate. It also publishes rolling five-year and ten-year IRRs as its primary performance indicators.

Mubadala manages a global portfolio spanning energy, technology, healthcare, financial services, real estate and advanced industries, aimed at generating long-term returns and supporting the diversification of Abu Dhabi’s economy.

Read: Mubadala Capital closes $900m Brazil Fund amid Middle East crisis

The US and Iran were to hold negotiations in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Saturday to end their six-week-old war, although Tehran threw the talks into doubt by saying they could not begin without commitments on Lebanon and sanctions.

The US delegation, led by Vice President JD Vance and including President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, was on its way to Islamabad after a refuelling stop in Paris.

The Iranian delegation, led by ‌parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, arrived on Friday.

Iran has ‘no cards’, says Trump

Qalibaf said on X that Washington had previously agreed to unblock Iranian assets and to a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israeli attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants have killed nearly 2,000 people since the start of the fighting in March. He said talks would not start until those pledges were fulfilled.

Israel and the US have said the Lebanon campaign is not part of the Iran-U.S. ceasefire while Tehran insists it is.

Qalibaf said separately that Iran was ready to reach a deal if Washington offered what he described as a genuine agreement and granted Iran its rights, Iranian state media reported.

The White House did not immediately comment on the Iranian demands, but Trump posted on social media that the only reason the Iranians were alive was to negotiate a deal.

“The Iranians don’t seem to realise they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he said.

Vance, speaking as he headed to Pakistan, said he expected a positive outcome but added: “If they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

Islamabad was under an unprecedented lockdown on Saturday with thousands of paramilitary personnel and army troops on the streets ahead of what Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called “make-or-break” talks.

Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the war on Tuesday, which has halted US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran.

But it has not ended Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies, or calmed the parallel war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Fighting continues in Lebanon

The Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, will hold talks in Washington on Tuesday, Israeli and Lebanese officials said, amid the conflicting accounts on what those talks would cover.

Lebanon’s presidency said the two had held a phone call on Friday and agreed to discuss announcing a ceasefire and setting a start date for bilateral talks under US mediation. But Israel’s embassy in Washington said the talks would constitute the start of “formal peace negotiations” and that Israel had refused to discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Israeli attacks continued across southern Lebanon on Friday. One strike on a government building in the city of Nabatieh killed 13 members of Lebanon’s state security forces, President Joseph Aoun said in a statement.

Hezbollah said in a statement on its Telegram channel that it fired rocket salvos at northern Israeli towns in response.

Hours after the ceasefire was announced, Israel launched the biggest attack of the war, killing more than 350 people in surprise strikes on heavily populated areas, Lebanese authorities said.

Tehran’s agenda at the talks also includes demands for major new concessions, including the end of sanctions that crippled its economy for years, and acknowledgment of its authority over the Strait of Hormuz, where it aims to collect transit fees and control access in what would amount to a huge shift in regional power.

Iran’s ships were sailing through the strait unimpeded on Friday, while those of other countries remained hemmed inside.

Disruption to energy supplies has fed inflation and slowed the global economy, with an impact expected to last for months even if negotiators succeed in reopening the strait.

The hard line taken by Iran’s leaders ahead of the negotiations followed a defiant message from its new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday.

Khamenei, yet to be seen in public since taking over from his father, who was killed on the war’s first day, said Iran would demand compensation for all wartime damage.

“We will certainly not leave unpunished the criminal aggressors who attacked our country,” he said.

Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, will host the 2029 annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group.

Hosting the meetings was in line with the UAE‘s strategic vision of strengthening international partnerships, Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE‘s finance minister, said in a statement.

“We are committed to providing an ideal environment that leads to tangible outcomes supporting sustainable development,” Al Maktoum, also first deputy ruler of Dubai and deputy prime minister, said in the statement.

The two meetings see central bankers and ministers of finance and development from across the globe, along with private sector leaders, discuss global economic issues such as job creation, financial stability and poverty eradication.

The choice of Abu Dhabi was made in a vote by the board of governors of the two institutions, a joint statement said on Friday. The meetings are usually held for two consecutive years in Washington and every third year in a member country.

The UAE last hosted the meetings in 2003 in Dubai, the Gulf region’s tourism and commercial hub.

France supports the suspension of a trade deal between the European Union and the US, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the French parliament on Tuesday, as a row over the future of Greenland intensified.

US President Donald Trump has threatened a further wave of tariffs on some European nations until he is allowed to take control of Greenland, to the dismay of European leaders.

“The threat of customs duties (is) being used as blackmail to obtain unjustifiable concessions,” Barrot said, adding that the European Commission has “very powerful instruments” to respond to Trump’s threats.

The European Parliament is expected to formally suspend on Wednesday its work on the trade deal struck with the US last summer in protest over Trump’s threats, EU lawmakers said.

The parliament had been due to vote on removing many EU import duties on January 26-27, but Manfred Weber, head of the European People’s Party, the largest group in parliament, said late on Saturday that approval was not possible for now.

In a post on the social media platform X, Barrot said France wants to continue working with the US on security and peace. “But when the United States makes an unacceptable proposal, it (France) is prepared to say no,” Barrot wrote.