Comalco Saving In N.Z. £5m.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30500, 23 July 1964, Page 1

Comalco Saving In N.Z. £5m.

O'.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, July 22. If Comalco Industries went ahead with the setting up of an aluminium smelter in New Zealand its annual saving on power bills would be something like £sm according to figures quoted today by the Australian “Financial Review.”

“This tremendous cost difference between the cost of Queensland power and New Zealand power highlights the prospect that Comalco will not establish a smelter at Gladstone, but will site it in New Zealand instead,” said the “Review.” The reference to the cost of New Zealand power is made in a 32-page supplement on aluminium in Australia.

Quoting the Queensland Commissioner for Electricity (Mr Neil Smith) the “Review” supplement said that the cheapest power available in Queensland would be 0.45 d a kilowatt-hour with coal at 15s a ton rising to 0.5 d a k.w.h. with coal at 20s Id a ton. Comparable Prices The Commissioner said: “Those prices I believe to be as good as any that could have been offered in Australia.” Referring to the fact that Comalco was contemplating setting up refinery operations in New Zealand where power costs were to be 0.25 d a k.w.h., Mr Smith said: “The difference in power costs between 0.25 d and 0.5 d for a refinery of 250,000 tons’ capacity a year, is of the order of £sm a year—a lot of difference.”