BY MOHAMMAD SHOEB
DOHA: As part of its Qatarisation efforts, Qatalum recruited 15 Qataris in 2012, taking the ratio of nationals working in the company to 4.9 percent, a senior Qatalum official told reporters at a press conference.
“We have plans to achieve the 50 percent target by 2020. Last year, we recruited about 15 Qataris in different positions and are encouraging more to join”, said Faraj Naseeb Al Abdullah, Qatarization and Development Manager at Qatalum.
Asked if the company had plans to provide vocational training to young graduates aspiring to work for it, he said: “Yes, time to time we launch vocational training programmes, and also organise and participate in career fairs to recruit high school and university students.”
He added: “Not only vocational training programmes for freshers, we also sponsor 10 students for their higher education in Qatar and abroad every year.”
Senior Qatalum officials, including Mohammed Al Mahmoud, Head of Sales, Nafal Al Hajri, Logistics Manager, and other staff, including newly recruited nationals, held a round table meeting with local media persons at the company’s Mesaieed office to discuss its achievements during the year 2012.
According to the officials, Qatalum recently celebrated the production of one million tonnes of liquid metal, which is sent to its cast house, calling it a milestone achieved through dedicated teamwork and improvement in efficiency.
Currently, Qatalum’s pot lines are producing approximately 600,000 tonnes of aluminium products annually, which is 15,000 tonnes above their average capacity since full production began in September 2011.
The company is all set to supply the global automotive industry with high-quality aluminium and take another step in achieving Qatalum’s strategic objective of industrial diversification as part of Qatar’s National Vision 2030.
Qatalum is getting ready to start implementing new strategies for the year 2013, which are expected to deal with the role of aluminum in various downstream industries in Qatar. According to a senior official of the company, it currently supplies only 10,000 metric tonnes of aluminium to the downstream industries in Qatar, which is less than two percent of the company’s annual production.
THE PENINSULA
