Årdal og Sunndal Verk or ÅSV is a defunct Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 state owned

Government-owned corporation

A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...

 company that operated the aluminum plants in Årdal

Årdal

Årdal is a municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sogn. The village of Årdalstangen is the administrative center of the municipality. Årdal was separated from Lærdal in 1860....

, Sunndal

Sunndal

is a municipality in the Nordmøre region located in the northeast part of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Sunndalsøra. Other villages include Jordalsgrenda, Øksendalsøra, Grøa, Hoelsand, Ålvund, and Gjøra.With an area of it is the...

, Høyanger

Høyanger

is a municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center is the village of Høyanger, which has 2177 inhabitants . Other villages in Høyanger include Lavik, Kyrkjebø, Austreim, and Vadheim...

 and Holmestrand

Holmestrand

is a city and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Holmestrad. The city was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . The neighboring rural municipality of Botne was merged into the municipality of Holmestrand on 1 January...

. The company was established to take advantage of the hydro-electric power plants in the respective villages to create aluminum plants. The company was founded in 1946 to continue the unfinished production of the Årdal plant started by the German occupational forces

Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany

The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany started with the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, and ended on May 8, 1945, after the capitulation of German forces in Europe. Throughout this period, Norway was continuously occupied by the Wehrmacht...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. In 1954 construction on the Sunndal plant started. The company was merged with Norsk Hydro

Norsk Hydro

Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. Hydro is the fourth largest integrated aluminium company worldwide. It has operations in some 40 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state holds a 43.8 percent...

 in 1986 to create the light metal

Light metal

Light metals are metals of low atomic weight. The cut off between light metals and heavy metals varies. Lithium, beryllium, sodium, magnesium and aluminium are almost always included. Additional metals up to nickel are often included as well. Metals heavier than nickel are usually called heavy...

division Hydro Aluminium.