Prospectiva de la industria del aluminio en Venezuela y su rol en la construcción de futuro sostenible

Abstract

Este trabajo expone un contexto de futuro que sintetiza el potencial de la industria del aluminio en Venezuela con base en un diagnostico del territorio y sus componentes claves. Este diagnostico permite conocer, percibir, analizar e interrelacionar informacion de tipo politico – institucional, socioeconomica –cultural y fisico - natural de atributos y elementos como: los principales depositos de bauxita; las principales centrales hidroelectricas; usos del territorio y actividades economicas, vialidad y transporte; recursos y potencial del aluminio; planes y leyes nacionales coherentes con el desarrollo esta industria; y sus problemas y restricciones de desarrollo. Posteriormente se proyectan las oportunidades de usar este material el cual es muy abundante en el pais, con propiedades unicas para la fabricacion de muchos productos en diferentes sectores de diversas industrias, sustituyendo importaciones de productos terminados, aprovechando diversos planes y leyes vigentes de ordenacion de territorio. Se observan tendencias favorables al crecimiento de la industria aluminio reflejadas en su creciente demanda mundial, y en Venezuela se tienen planes para la estimulacion y fortalecimiento de la microempresa, de las cooperativas, o empresas de produccion social (EPS) que fabriquen productos terminados, ademas de politicas, convenios y alianzas comerciales, de trasferencia tecnologica y en diversidad de areas de interes geoestrategico con otros paises. Finalmente, entre los inconvenientes actuales estan: a. Los impactos ambientales en la etapa de produccion de aluminio primario, sin embargo, en todo el mundo se estan investigando y aplicando nuevas tecnologias para reducir su impacto ambiental; b. Menos del 40% del aluminio primario producido es procesado por la industria nacional publica o privada para la elaboracion de productos semielaborados y el resto se exporta; c. Existen muy pocas empresas dedicadas a la fabricacion de productos elaborados, y muy poca inversion en el conjunto de tecnologias que articuladas permitirian fabricar elementos, partes o componentes con gran diversidad de formas, acabados y propiedades. Abstract Prospective of aluminum industry in Venezuela and its role in building sustainable future Present work expounds and synthesizes the future potential of aluminum industry in Venezuela, based on a diagnosis in terms of national territory and its key components. The diagnosis allowed us to recognize, perceive, analyze and interrelate information of different types such as political, institutional, socio-economic, cultural, physico-natural. Attributes and elements of such information were as follows: locations of major bauxite deposits and hydroelectric sites, land use and economic activities, highways and transportation systems, potential sources of aluminum, national plans and laws coherent with the industry’s development and also problems and restrictions on the development. We then cast light on opportunities in using this abundant material in our country. Aluminum has a unique property for manufacturing many products in different sectors of diverse industries. By taking good advantages of concurrent and diverse plans and laws in land use, national manufacturing would substitute importation of finished products. We noted favorable tendencies of growth in our aluminum industry, reflecting its increasing demand worldwide. In Venezuela, there are plans of stimulating and strengthening our micro-businesses, cooperatives and what we call companies of social production (EPS) that elaborate finished products. Moreover, there are political and commercial alliances and agreements as well as technology transfer in assorted areas with other countries of geostrategic interests. Lastly, we listed here various actual problems: 1. Environmental impacts at crude aluminum production stage. This is, on the other hand, being researched and applied with new technologies for reducing environmental negative impacts throughout the world. 2. Less than 40% of crude aluminum produced in our country is processed by national industries, public or otherwise, in elaborating semi-elaborated products. The rest is exported. 3. There are few companies dedicated to manufacturing elaborated products. So are the investments in manufacturing technology that would allow items, parts or components with large varieties of forms, finishes and properties.