Hydraulic energy is the single exploitable energy in Cameroun. All combustible material must be imported There are two cen tral hydroelectric stations The one on the Sanaga River at Edea had a capacity of 159,000 kw in 1961 and was to be ex panded to a potential capacity of i 25 million kw Its main function is to supply the Socie’te' Camerounaise de Transforma tion de rAluminum (SOCATRAL) refining plant and the city of Douala with electric power The hydroelectric station at Dschang has a very small capacity There are thermal stations at Yaounde^ Nkongsamba, Maroua, Mbalmayo, Eseka, and Ga- roua Consumption in 1959 totaled 842 6 million kwh, of which 831 6 million was hydroelectric power Public, consumption amounted to 48.6 million kwh; all the rest was used industrially. 28 INDUSTRY Considerable advances in industrial development have been made in recent years, mostly in the south. All of the larger industrial enterprises which require substantial capital investments are owned by European companies, but Africans are beginning to play a significant role. Before the establishment of SOCATRAL operations in 1957, all important enterprises were connected with processing agri cultural and forestry products. The most significant of these are the peanut and palm oil mills at Edea, Douala, Bertoua, and Pitoa; soap factories at Douala and Pitoa, tobacco factories at Yaounde, a rubber factory in the Dizangue region, and 28 lumber mills of which the one at Eseka is claimed to be one of the most modern in the world A factory at Kaele produces cotton fiber, and a cotton oil plant there produces oil for ex port There is also a beer factory at Douala The major industrial enterprise is the aluminum plant of the Societe Camerounaise de Transformation de I'Aluniinum (SO CATRAL) at Edea, which began operations in 1957 as ALUCAM, in 1961 it reached its rated annual capacity of 47,000 tons It uses alumina imported from France and Guinea A pressing and fabricating plant was added to t...