Established in 1970 as a partnership between
synthetic rubber maker FATE, businessman
José Ber Gelbard, and other private investors, Aluar obtained an exclusive licence to produce aluminum from the military regime of General
Alejandro Lanusse, who sought to make Argentina self-sufficient in the critical industrial staple. Following state-financed works on a
hydroelectric dam in
Trevelin,
Chubut Province, Aluar opened its first
smelter in
Puerto Madryn, in 1974. The 47th largest enterprise in Argentina in 1979, and with an output of 140,000 metric tons, Aluar/FATE was listed on the
Buenos Aires Stock Exchange that year. It expanded into the aluminium products industry with the purchase of Kicsa (a former subsidiary of
Kaiser Motors), in 1983. Retaining a majority stake in the company as the principal in FATE, Manuel Madanes died in 1988, and following a
probate dispute within the family, Dolores Quintanilla de Madanes, an in-law, acquired control of the group. whose installed capacity of 472 MW nearly doubled that of its Trevelín facility, and it expanded further into the
intermediate products sector with the 1998 purchase of Uboldi & Compañía. ==Technology==