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Venezuelan steelmaker Sidor reported a 61.3 percent decrease year-on-year in liquid steel production for the month of January after some of its facilities were closed last year to save power.

Local news sources reported that Sidor’s production of crude steel amounted to 123,000 mt in January 2010, compared to 318,000 mt produced in January 2009. Sidor’s labor director commented that the lower production is directly attributable to an energy rationing program implemented by Venezuela’s government.

President Hugo Chavez, who nationalized the company in 2008, shut down several Sidor furnaces in December to save approximately 300 megawatt hours, or 60 percent of the company’s consumption.

The nation’s hydroelectric dams, which provide most of the country’s electricity, have been crippled during a prolonged drought, and there is speculation that Chavez will have to close the national aluminum, steel and bauxite operations.