Venezuela's steel and aluminum industries are at their lowest production point in three decades, a Ministry of Industries report showed Thursday.
The renationalized steel company Sidor, the largest in the Andean region, is currently producing at just 31% of installed capacity. Venezuela is an important player in the market for semi-finished products, long and flat steel products, hot briquetted iron (HBI) pellets and primary aluminum.
In the last case, due to declining production, it has been forced to vastly reduce its metal exports.
In 2014, Venalum, Latin America's largest smelter at 410,000 mt/year, produced just 109,536 mt, down 14% on the output in 2013.
The report said that at one point last year Venalum was forced to diminish the purity of its metal as result of its economic crisis.
"But that has since been rectified even though the metal is never 100% pure," a Venalum official said in an interview.
Meanwhile, Alcasa, whose installed capacity is 170,000 mt/year, produced just 28,798 mt in 2014, according to the government report.
Source:Platts
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