Iceland’s aluminum production capabilities will triple in the next few years making Iceland one of the world’s largest aluminum manufacturers in the world, reports Morgunbladid. In his keynote speech, at the conference “Orkulindin Ísland” underway today at Hotel Nordica, Thórdur Fridjónsson, the director of the Icelandic Stock Exchange, said that it was indisputable that operations currently underway had had a positive effect on economic growth.
Today, Iceland produces about 270,000 tons of aluminum per year but in 2008 that figure will increase to 800,000 and could reach 1,500,000 if projects currently under consideration will be approved said Thórdur. According to Thórdur if the Straumsvík Aluminum smelter is enlarged and ideas on new aluminum smelters in the South and North of Iceland come to fruition, Iceland’s aluminum production capabilities will increase even more.
Thórdur said it was clear that the impact of heavy industry on Iceland’s economy today is different from that in preceding decades and mentioned the increased participation of foreign labor as an example.
