Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Venezuela to nationalize top steelmaker

The Venezuelan government announced today that it will nationalize the country’s largest steel maker: Ternium Sidor. Shares for the Argentine-controlled firm fell in trading this afternoon, though Venezuela’s Vice President tried to assure that the move was fair and necessary:

Vice President Ramon Carrizalez said the nationalization is meant to protect workers' rights.

"We made a great effort to search for solutions," Carrizalez told reporters. "There was no will on the company's part to settle the conflict."

He said one option would be for the government to assume an ownership share of about 60 percent, with the company's owners keeping 20 percent.

The Ternium Sidor deal comes days after the Chavez administration said that they would nationalize the country’s cement industry; a move which did not sit well with officials at Mexican firm Cemex.

Other sectors which have been recently nationalized in Venezuela include telecommunications, electricity and gas companies.

Image- BBC News

Sources- Reuters, AFP, Associated Press, BBC News

1 comment:

theCardinal said...

I suppose Cristina thought all that campaign money from Hugo was only because he liked her