The “operative and financial profits” and results of the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana (CVG) and their branchs have not been presented/displayed publicly, as it gets used to doing during the last month of every year.

Maria Ramirez Hair
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Photo Pablo Ruiz

One hopes that the CVG informs publicly on the results of the management of the 2008

In this opportunity, to reasons on the nonpresentation for the “profits” and operative and financial results of the 2008 have not occurred.

It extended unofficially that minister Rodolfo Sanz, also president of the CVG, did not approve the account point on the presentation of the profits of the holding company.

In previous years, after the general balance sheet of the CVG, each company it realised a presentation of his operative and financial results.

Through a consultation to sources of the state ones - Venalum, Carbonorca, Bauxilum, Alcasa, Ferrominera Orinoco, Minerven, Sidor- could at least be known that in no it is raised or planned the accomplishment of a public presentation, “this week”.

In the tactical mission of CVG Ferrominera Orinoco, president Radwan Sabbagh presented/displayed to his workers the operative results of the industry.

In CVG Minerven Thursday will be made a presentation to a group of workers selected by the east directive. Unofficially, which was known that the company finished with losses, generates preoccupation in the labor mass.

At the beginning of December, minister Sanz offered an extensive press conference in which he touched great part of the problems that afflicts to the industries. The encounter served to draw a summary of the year, but nevertheless, lack to know the precise numbers as far as production and finances.

In this encounter, the minister recognized that the factories of aluminum have a difficult situation, and due to the fall of the prices and the demand in the international market could “be complicated”. It needed that at present the ton of aluminum is sold to US$ 1,500, when its price of production is of US$ 3,200 by ton.

“It is world-wide an economic reality, the crisis it is affecting those companies”, it affirmed, when recognizing the technological obsolescence of the industries and the high labor cost that represents an investment of 52% of the structure.

It needed that at the end of the 2008, they would give proposals to improve the productivity. Nevertheless, these have not been informed publicly.

Aluminum in crisis
It is as well as the 2008 it closes with “an evident” reality that it reflects the lack of investment and the necessity to consolidate an effective management that it directs to the industries to the productivity.

For Bauxilum the 2008 were hard. To the loss of the production product of the lack of maintenance one adds the insufficient flow of box that has disabled the payment to suppliers of services and consumptions, as well as the cancellation of pending labor liabilities.

The president of the processor of alumina and extractor of bauxite, Bald Jesus, indicated during the last month of the year that to its arrival to the industry stated a scene characterized by the deficient flow of box, lack of maintenance, paralysis of licitation, labor breach of sales, excess of personnel and conflicts.

In alumina production, they hoped to reach 1.592.369 tons, “the lowest level in the last three years”, in agreement with the projections; whereas they anticipated to reach a production of 6,600 tons/day of bauxite.

“Patito ugly” of the holding company, CVG Alcasa, as it were called by one of its presidents, did not improve its productive capacity in the 2008. On the contrary, its financial insostenibilidad would be “swallowing” to the rest of the sector aluminum by the debts that maintains with Bauxilum and Carbonorca. To the 9 of December, 149 cells of production were out of service, of a total of 592, which harms the operativity seriously, in agreement with declared by the labor director, the Henry Aryan.

The financial imbalance also affects CVG Carbonorca, where it has been delayed to the payment of the fortnight as well as some benefits of the labor mass. The plant was paralyzed recently by the workers, which harms the operativity of CVG Alcasa, main buyer of the carbon anodes.

Venalum is in a similar situation by the lack of box flow.

Thus the things, the lack of investment and operative maintenance in the plants has been lethal for the productivity of the same.

The managemental instability by the frequent change of presidents has been another one of the damages to the industries.

They lower exports
Technological obsolescence and the labor problems have affected the exports of the raw materials. While the nonoil exports increased 5.8%, in a context of increases of prices of some of the exported lines and a greater positioning in volumetric chemical agent terms and iron mineral, “the main headings of nonoil exports corresponding to alumina and planes of aluminum registered falls superiors to 15%”, indicated the Central bank of Venezuela (BCV) in their last report of the 2008.

The being attributes to the reduction of the alumina exports and planes of aluminum to “the necessity to satisfy the internal market and the technical problems derived from the obsolescence of some lines of production, as well as to some labor conflicts”.

Plans 2009

The budget of nation 2009 anticipates a set of investments to increase the production of aluminum in the country.

Although nonspecific the official document which are the companies that will receive the resources, indicates that in the area of aluminum, they hope to jump at levels of primary aluminum production of 620 thousand tons, 45 thousand tons of half-finished and the implementation of programs of technological and environmental adjustment.

It emphasizes the document that is anticipated to advance in the execution of the project “Design, construction and beginning of a plant of lamination and aluminum smelting in Caicara of the Orinoco, Cedeño municipality, of the state Bolivar”, that will extend the capacity of transformation of primary aluminum in Venezuela, “from the installation of a transforming plant of two lines of production: one of lamination in cold to process approximately 100,00 t/año of laminated aluminum and another one of smelting, with a 54,500 capacity of t/año of alloyed aluminum”.