| Venezuela’s President certainly knows how to keep in the news. This time he is threating to nationalize the coutries steel industry if Ternium Sidor continues its policy to monopolize steel production. Chavez does not make threats lightly and the senior management better beware. For full article please read on:
Chávez threatens to nationalize Steel Industry if “monopoly” continues |
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Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez has announced that he will nationalize the steelmaker Ternium Sidor if it continues its so-called industrial policy of monopolizing steel production. “If the Sidor company… decides not to change its approach immediately, I will be forced to nationalize it, just as we have done with Cantv. We must do away with monopolies,” Chávez was quoted by state news agency ABN as saying.
Ternium Sidor produces steel necessary for tube manufacturing and ships it to a group of companies while others that need the raw material have no access to it, according to the president. “We have to bring in tubes from China and that can’t be allowed,” he said. The president’s request was prompted by reactivation of the Invetubos tube company located in Carabobo state, which manufactures tubes for the oil industry. The company has been closed for 11 years but a group of traders recently purchased 55% of the plant and began production after investing US$9.7mn.
Employees own 45% of the company. The reactivation seeks to promote small and midsize industry. “Since Sidor is a local steelmaker where the national government holds shares, it has been asked to supply the raw material instead of sending it to other countries,” a spokesperson from the ministry of mining and basic industries (Mibam) told BNamericas.
State oil company PDVSA purchases Invetubos’ output “and the idea is that [the tubes] be manufactured here, that the raw material be from here and that PDVSA be able to acquire those tubes more quickly,” the official said. The president has appointed the head of Mibam, José Khan, to evaluate how Sidor could provide its steel to the domestic market, said the official.
Sidor was privatized in 1997 and is Venezuela’s largest steelmaker with average liquid steel production of 4.2Mt/y. The Ternium steel group holds a 59.75% share in Sidor, the Venezuelan state controls 20.36% through state heavy industry holding company CVG, and employees own the remaining 19.91%. |
Chávez threatens to nationalize Steel Industry if “monopoly” continues
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