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[June 2001]
Sunndal - Board Verifies Decision
The expansion and modernisation of Hydro Aluminium Sunndal is to be carried out as planned, the Board of Norsk Hydro having on 13 June 2001 verified its previous decision. According to the now updated plans, capacity at the metal plant will be increased to 328,000 tonnes per year when 'New Sunndal' comes on stream in 2004 and arrangements will furthermore be made to increase capacity to about 350,000 tonnes per year from 2007. New Sunndal will contribute significantly to value creation in Hydro Aluminium Metal Products.
"The Main Study has confirmed that this is an excellent project, from a strategic, technical, financial and environmental point of view," said President and CEO of Norsk Hydro, Eivind Reiten. "The study process has contributed to making a clearly profitable project even better. New Sunndal will not only be the largest aluminium plant in Europe, but will also have a per capita productivity that ranks among the best in the world."
Last year, Hydro Aluminium marketed more than 2.1 million tonnes of foundry products. This volume is expected to grow further this year, making Hydro the European market leader for foundry products such as extrusion ingots and foundry alloys, the two products to be produced in Sunndal. Hydro's own potroom production of aluminium in 2000 stood at 762,000 tonnes. As a consequence of New Sunndal and certain other capacity expansions, production will rise overall to around 960,000 tonnes from 2005. In addition, Hydro has the opportunity of increasing its stake in the Slovalco metal plant in Slovakia.
The total Sunndal project will require an investment of roughly US$600 million (based on the current exchange rate). Productivity is expected to be 570 tonnes per employee per year which is on a par with the best plants in the world.
ENDS