Lögberg-Heimskringla - 21.05.1982, Blaðsíða 1

Sedlabanki Islands
Adalskrif stcfa
Austurstraeti 11
fieykjavik Iceland
96. ÁRGANGUR
pd 198k
Lögberq
Heimskringla
LÖGBERG Stofnað 14. janúar 1888
HEIMSKRINGLA Stofnað 9. september 1886
WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 21. MAÍ 1982 NÚMER 19
Ambitious industrial
plans make headlines
Courtesy News from Iceland
Recent weeks saw flareups of ag-
ing Icelandic controversies over the
proposed development of several
new industries. Described variously
as holding out great promises and as
white elephants, the schemes call
for plants turning out rockwool,
from domestic basalt; sugar, from
imported molasses; common salt,
from geothermal brine; and steel
rods for poured concrete, from
scrap metal.
What triggered the simultaneous
rounds of acrimonious public
debate was a move by the Minister
of Industry and Energy, Hjörleifur
Guttormsson (People's Alliance). He
announced that he favoured.
Saudárkrókur, a N-Iceland village,
as a site for the rockwool factory.
His reasoning on this matter had a
twin basis: the longstanding govern-
ment commitment to regional
development, and the argument that
more alternatives were open to the
rival bidders.
That group includes a large
number of municipalities in the cen-
tral South. It has promoted the
coastal hamlet of Thorlákshöfn for
years as the only logical host to the
rockwool project. Understandably,
a key argument of that lobby is that
community's nearness to the most
densely populated part of the coun-
try, the Reykjavík area.
Guttermsson's announcement
quickly rallied all legislators from
the central South to a common cause
— where political stripes, for once,
played no role. These members of
Althing (parliament) vowed to leave
no stone unturned in the efforts to
win the nod for Thorlákshöfn.
A consolation deal was soon
bröached: a plant using geothermal
steam for extracting sugar from low-
priced imported molasses, to be
located in Hveragerdi, a short
distance from Thorlákshöfn. Apart
from the regional tug-of-war over
the rockwool scheme, each of the
four proposed industries draws a
good deal of fire from critics who
worry that the operation will be un-
profitable, to say the least.
While such thinking is rejected
out of hand by enthusiastic pro-
moters of each plan, all or most of
them — curiously enough — pin
their hopes on substantial state in-
vestment and other official favours,
such as low energy rates and, critics
say, protection against cheap com-
peting imports.
One articulate critic of all four
plans wrote, among other things,
that while rockwool has been losing
ground in the construction industry,
the envisaged output of the factory
that may rise in Saudárkrókur or
Thorlákshöfn amounts to many
times the current domestic re-
quirements of the product.
As for possible transport of
rockwool from the N-Iceland village
to Reykjavík, the State Shipping
Authority, which cannot operate
without massive subsidies, has of-
fered rates that amount to just a
small fraction (roughly a quarter) of
what its coastal freighters normally
charge.
The highly tentative sugar pro-
posal involves a largely untried pro-
cess, though the availability of
cheap heat energy from geothermal
drillholes in Hveragerdi is an
attractive feature of the picture by “
Fyrsta vikan í maí var óvenju köld
um gervallt ísland. Á Norðurlandi
snjóaði í nokkra daga og urðu vegir
þar flótt ófærir vegna skafrennings.
Snjómoksturstæki höfðu vart við og
fylltist slóðin jafnhraðan þar sem
þau fóru um.
Sunnanlands var frekar hvöss
norðanátt en þurrt. Frost var meira
en vant er á þessum árstíma og
aðfararnótt þess 6. mældist 7.6 stiga
Minister of Energy, Guttorms-
son addressing parliament.
all accounts. While molasses im-
ports for the facility would be inex-
pensive, the assumed sales of the
residue ,as animal feed are pro-
blematic. Sugar markets globally are
more or less glutted.
A pilot plant for extracting sodium
chloride (common salt) from super-
heated geothermal brine has
operated in SW-Iceland for several
years. Technologically, that installa-
tion is very interesting as it gets
feedstock and energy from the same
drill hole; a product turned out
there has been used successfully on
a test basis by processors salting
dermersal fish for export to
Mediterranean markets.
frost og er það kaldasta maínótt
þessarar aldar. Farfuglar hröktust til
og frá, leituðu skjóls í húsagörðum
og heldur fannst þeim vistin
daufleg.
Á Austurlandi var ástand líkt því á
Norðurlandi, blindhríð í nokkra
daga og allir fjallvegir ófærir.
Bændur þar voru að vonum
áhyggjufullir því sauðburður var
Work to build on what has been
achieved through the pilot project in
SW-Iceland is in progress, with the
state committed to a major role in
the sodium chloride venture. But
warnings keep coming from critics
who question the profitability
estimates, not least with regard to
inexpensive competing supplies
from Spain — salt that can be
brought here at low freight rates
linked to traditional shipments of
fish products to the Mediterranean
region.
Others caution against a whole-
sale switch to domestic sodium
chloride in salting seafood, pointing
to the danger of adverse reactions
among foreign consumers ac-
cumstomed to Icelandic salted fish
of very specific taste and texture.
Still others make mention of the
growing publicity given to sodium
as a health risk.
A Reykjavík group (Stálfélagid) is
seeking to raise capital for a small
stell mill, a facility that would pro-
duce most or all reinforcement rods
needed in this country, where
poured concrete is the basic con-
struction material. While advocates
of that plan say it is viable (given
rates that are in line with rod costs
to builders abroad), opponents
fasten on the outlook for continuing
steel surpluses in foreign markets.
u.þ.b. að hefjast og grös byrjuð að
grænka. Á Húsavík urðu götur
þungfærar og sama má segja um
aðra kaupstaði.
Þegar þetta er ritað hefur veðrinu
slotað og hiti kominn upp fyrir
frostmark. Vorið er vonandi gengið í
garð svo gróður taki nú við sér og
farfuglar geti aldið áfram að huga að
hreiðurgerð.
Fyrri hluti maí óvenju
kaldur á íslandi