Government rescue plan presented to the aluminum industry


- EFE - Caracas - 26/02/2009 13:50 26
The Venezuelan government will present next week a plan to recover
the aluminum industry, affected by low international prices, said
today the minister of Basic Industries and Mining Rodolfo Sanz.

The official explained that the crisis in the sector is mainly
because a ton of aluminum in the international market is priced
between one thousand and 200 thousand a $ 500, while its cost of
production in Venezuela is slightly over 3 $ 500 mil.

"We will propose a plan that we all have to make some sacrifice,
state, business suppliers and workers," Sanz told the press after
presenting the National Assembly and the memory of his office for
2008.

The minister refused to advance any aspects of the proposal, but also
revealed that include investing in technology to reduce costs.

The domestic aluminum industry includes bauxite mining, alumina
processing in the production of primary aluminum anodes, and for hot
and cold rolling.

The companies are in it Bauxiven (phase extraction), Interalúmina
(phase of production of alumina), Carbonorca (anode production) and
Alcasa and Venalum (phases of industrialization and commercialization
of aluminum).

The nominal installed capacity of primary aluminum production is
around 650 thousand tons annually.

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