Hydro Husnes, formerly Sør-Norge Aluminium AS or SØRAL is one of seven aluminium producers in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The company is located in

Husnes Husnes is the largest village in Kvinnherad municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the southern shore of the Hardangerfjorden on the Folgefonna peninsula, about south of the village of Herøysund and immediately nort ...

Kvinnherad Kvinnherad is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnhordland, along the Hardangerfjorden. The municipality was the 5th in size in former Hordaland county. The administrative centre of the mu ...

. The plant includes facilities for producing raw aluminium by

electrolysis In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of elements from n ...

, casthouse for

casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...

extrusion ingots,

silo A silo (from the Greek σιρός – ''siros'', "pit for holding grain") is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store fermented feed known as silage, not to be confused with a grain bin, which is used t ...

s for storing aluminium oxide and a

dock A dock (from Dutch language, Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The ex ...

. The plant has 240 employees and a net production of 180,000 metric tons. The company was acquired and became a subsidiary of

Norsk Hydro Norsk Hydro ASA (often referred to as just ''Hydro'') is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around the world an ...

on 1 November 2014.

History

The idea of an smelting plant in Kvinnherad was conceived in 1959, after two seasons of very poor results for the local fishing industry. With the second wave of industrialization sweeping over Norway, it was decided that Husnes, a remote, flat area with good access to shipping lanes and access to the massive electric power needed, would be an ideal site for an aluminium smelting plant. Following a prolonged period of preparation and paperwork, Sør-Norge Aluminium, or SØRAL for short, was formed on June 29, 1962, with 1.000.000 NOK (10.500.000 NOK in 2014) in invested capital. Construction of the plant itself began the following year, and the first production line, "Hall A", opened for production in November 1965. The secondary production line, "Hall B", opened in March 1966, and in October 1966, the plant was officially opened by

Sverre Walter Rostoft Sverre Walter Rostoft (12 December 1912 – 26 April 2001) was a Norwegian businessperson and politician for the Conservative Party. Early life and education He was born in Glemmen as a son of ship captain Georg Walter Andersen (1887–1952) and ...

, the then-Norwegian minister for industry. During the early years, the plant struggled with getting enough local manpower, which led to an increase in importing workers from other regions in Norway (especially from

Finnmark Finnmark (; se, Finnmárku ; fkv, Finmarku; fi, Ruija ; russian: Финнмарк) was a county in the northern part of Norway, and it is scheduled to become a county again in 2024. On 1 January 2020, Finnmark was merged with the neighbouri ...

Troms Troms (; se, Romsa; fkv, Tromssa; fi, Tromssa) is a former county in northern Norway. On 1 January 2020 it was merged with the neighboring Finnmark county to create the new Troms og Finnmark county. This merger is expected to be reversed by t ...

) and other countries, like

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. At the time, the plant had 485 employees and produced 60.000 metric tonnes of aluminium every year. Production remained stable during the 1970s, 80s and 90s, as the local community gradually expanded around the plant, which was the main source of income for most families in the area. During the next twenty years, Husnes grew from a small farming village to an expanded urban area with shopping centres, schools and sports facilities. During the early 2000s, due to a gradual fall in aluminium prices, the production rate slowed down, and the company began suffering losses for the first time in forty years. Eventually, the situation led to the closure of Hall B in 2009, followed by severe downsizing, affecting almost half the workers on the plant. In 2014, following two years of speculation in whether the company would manage to recover, the plant was purchased by

, renaming the plant Hydro Husnes. In 2019, Norsk Hydro announced the upgrading of

operations at the plant with an investment of NOK 150 million, enabling the plant to deliver a wider range of aluminum products geared towards the automotive market once the new facilities become operational in 2020.

References

External links

"Hydro Husnes"
Information on parent company's website. Retrieved 15 November 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Soeral Aluminium companies of Norway Companies based in Hordaland Kvinnherad