“Greater Use Of Aluminium After Smelter Is Built”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29368, 22 November 1960, Page 19

“Greater Use Of Aluminium After Smelter Is Built”

(New Zealand P'.

DUNEDIN, Nov. 21. With the establishment of an aluminium industry New Zealand could expect the growth of many subsidiary industries which would supply all New Zealand’s wants for aluminium products, said Mr C. G. Crane, an Australian industrialist, in Dunedin today. Mr Crane’s firm . specialises in fabrication in non-ferrous metals.

A rolling mill and an extrusion plant would naturally be built after the aluminium smelter was operating. The rolling mill would produce sheeting and the extrusion plant would shape the metal. He said he thought that, at present, New Zealand would not rank highly in 'the use of aluminium, but with the establishment of a smelter its use was bound to Increase. On a per capita basis Europe now used about 181 b a year, and possibly the figure for Britain was evert higher. Mr Crane predicted, a greater use of aluminium by the building trade in New Zealand. In the United States houses were being built of aluminium. In

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Australia, and perhaps to a lesser extent in New Zealand, aluminium was being used for partitions in buildings. Aluminium was also being used throughout the world for irrigation systems, where it had obvious advantages over steel. It did not corrode as easily and as it was light to handle it was easily transportable on farms where frequent changes in irrigated areas were wanted. In some industries aluminium could be employed as a substitute for steel, but Mr Crane considered the basic metal for heavy industry would continue to be steel.