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SIDOR

Venezuelan steel corporation

Field	Value
name	Siderúrgica de Orinoco, C.A.
image	SIDOR.jpg
image_caption	Headquarters in Ciudad Guyana, Bolívar
type	State-owned company
foundation	1953
location_city	Ciudad Guayana, Bolívar
location_country	Venezuela
products	Steel
num_employees	13,000
homepage	www.sidor.com

Siderúrgica de Orinoco C.A. (SIDOR) is the largest Venezuelan steel corporation. The company is situated in an industrial zone in Ciudad Guayana, Bolívar State, near the Orinoco River.

Major iron deposits were found in Bolívar State in 1926 and 1947. Mining companies constructed rail infrastructure to take iron ore to ports on the Orinoco River. The potential to process iron ore in Venezuela became more apparent with the construction of the Guri Dam (one of a series on the Caroní River) in the 1960s. The Sidor plant was designed to make use of hydro-electricity to process iron ore which had been hitherto exported. Funds for its construction were obtained from Venezuela's oil revenues.

SIDOR ceased operating permanently after the first 2019 Venezuelan blackout. Its production had been gradually decreasing since the company was nationalized in 2008 by Hugo Chávez. A former director said that Chávez had "received it as a productive and solvent company; but management coming from the military world, unaware of 'steel manufacturing' activity, together with the 'absence of strategic planning and investments, led to a sustained fall in production'."

History

The production of steel by Sidor from 2007 to 2016. Data are from the Memoria 2011 and 2015 of the Ministerio del Poder Popular para Industrias of Venezuela. Data for 2016 is from Correo del Caroní (22. Jan. 2017).

Founded in 1953 as a public company, it was privatised in 1997 under President Rafael Caldera, with a 60% stake going to Argentina's Ternium. A famous Italian company, Innocenti, was the leading company driving all the start up of the project.

It was renationalised in mid-2008 under Hugo Chávez following a series of industrial disputes over pay which had paralysed the company for over a year. In early 2009 compensation of around $1.65bn was nearly agreed for the nationalisation of Ternium's 59.7% stake, with Ternium also keeping a 10% stake in the company.

Production went down from 4.3 million tons in 2007 to 307 thousand tons in 2016, production capacity being 4.6 million tons. Thousands of workers were said to be staring at the ceiling instead of working as of March 2019.

In March 2020, the factory was reactivated to help dealing with health emergency caused by COVID-19 pandemic. It now produces industrial gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon.

In January 2021, during the second wave of COVID-19 and collapse of Manaus' health system, in Brazil, Jorge Arreaza, Venezuela's Foreign Minister, following instructions from Nicolás Maduro, offered part of his country's stock of oxygen to the government of Amazonas. About 100,000 liters were loaded at Siderúrgica del Orinoco (SIDOR) to proceed to Brazil.

References

Leon, Mariela. (17 March 2019). "Señalan que con el apagón se "cierran las puertas" de Sidor". El Universal.
Baida, Guilherme. (19 March 2019). "Venezuelan steelmaker Sidor shuts all operations after energy blackout". S&P Global.
[https://money.cnn.com/2008/05/01/news/international/venezuela_steel/index.htm Venezuela nationalizes steel industry], CNN, May 1, 2008
''Reuters'', 26 April 2008, [https://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN2642760420080427 Venezuela says Ternium Sidor stake worth $800 mln]
''Reuters'', 30 January 2008, [https://www.reuters.com/article/ousivMolt/idUSN3025891220080131 Thousands strike at Venezuela's Sidor steel]
''Business News Americas'', 20 January 2009, [http://www.bnamericas.com/news/privatization/Ternium_agrees_to_receive_Sidor_payment_in_two_installments1 Ternium agrees to receive Sidor payment in two installments - Venezuela]
María Ramírez Cabello. (22 January 2017). "Sidor operó en 2016 a 6% de su capacidad instalada". [[Correo del Caroní]].
(14 March 2019). "Jorge Roig: El apagón es una tragedia peor que el terremoto de Caracas".
"Primeiro carregamento de oxigênio da Venezuela deve chegar a Manaus até segunda".
(2021-01-18). "Trabalhadores que produziram oxigênio na Venezuela mandam mensagem ao Brasil".
Schimidt, Florantonia Singer, Steffanie. (2021-01-17). "Venezuela anuncia envio de oxigênio a Manaus, mas Governo não confirma recebimento".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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