Venezuelan state-owned steelmaker Siderurgica del Orinoco (Sidor) has announced that its crude steel output for 2008 totaled 3.57 million metric tons, about 17 percent less than the 2007 figure and nearly 20 percent less than the current installed capacity of 4.5 million mt.
In the first quarter of 2008, Sidor registered a decrease in production of 400,000 mt over the same period of 2007, with the total volume of shipments for the quarter at 401,000 mt, down 36.4 percent from Q1 2007. The second quarter of 2008 yielded an output of a little over one million mt, down from 1.1 million mt produced in the second quarter of 2007.
Sidor said its production hit a record high in August, at 355,000 mt, but slowed down in the fourth quarter, dropping as low as 245,000 mt in December. Sidor concluded the fourth quarter with 810,000 less mt produced than in 2007.
Issues arising from the company's change of ownership, which took place in the third quarter, as well as labor demonstrations and a September 1 power outage, were all cited as reasons for the decrease in 2008 output.