What Does ‘EMAL’ Mean?

The agreement between Emal and GAIN is an agreement for manufactures to use their leading-class metal products in Middle East markets. The agreement covers all transportation logistics and handling operations for the finished goods from the Emal port to the international container freight terminal and export facility at Khalifa port. The milestone FHM marks the commencement of manufacturing for the first phase of the new phase, which is to be completed three months later. This is the biggest shipbreaking contract in the world, which has a turnover of more than USD 2.2 billion annually. With the increasing demand in Middle East for quality aluminium products, more companies are exploring strategic options to source this raw material from the Middle East. For such companies, long distance shipping is the most cost effective and safe mode of transporting the raw materials.

The term ’emal’ in English literally means ‘of silver or gold’ but when translated into Arabic, it signifies ‘a silver ornament’. It was only after the beginning of World War I that the term came to apply to objects designed or decorated with precious metal. The use of the term became prevalent in commerce during the 19th century when emal was used to mean the coins that were minted in silver by Arab mints.

The present day use of emal means ‘a silver ornament’ or ‘a silver coin’. Other applications of the term include the metal ‘malonate’ found in the Italian glass making, and the French word ‘maloise’. The term was popularized by American financier Silas Keen. In fact, it is now the widely accepted term for anything made of silver. The use of the term ’emal’ in international trade is still growing.

During the early days, the coins were being evaluated for their worth in silver. After the discovery of silver, its demand as a money commodity grew tremendously. The price of silver quickly became equal to that of gold which was highly appreciated by all merchants. This made silver coins highly valuable and traders considered them a safe investment.

By having such high values, they had to be made in larger quantities than usual. This requirement increased their demand and their prices also shot up. The Arabian traders were the first ones to recognize the potential of the coin. As a result, they ordered large numbers of emal and sold them extensively both to Europeans and to natives of the area.

Later on, coin dealers started trading in silver not only for its intrinsic value but also because the currency strengthened in value. This was a favorable situation for them. The price of silver shot up and since it was easy to sell the currency in exchange for other foreign currencies, they could earn a good profit in the process. This made the trade very profitable for them.