Chávez to force steelmaker to supply Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez said Saturday he would issue a decree forcing Venezuela's largest steelmaker to supply the local market, two days after he threatened to nationalize the foreign-owned company.

Chávez, who has taken over utilities and oil fields this year in a drive to turn the OPEC country into a socialist state, said he would tell the company, Sidor-Ternium, his plan at an emergency meeting with its top shareholder from Argentina next week.

"If you do not agree, give me it, I'll grab the company, I'll pay whatever it costs, I am not going to rob you," Chávez said at an event to form a single political party from the dozens of groups that support him.

Chávez said he would pass the law for Sidor using powers Congress gave him to rule by decree this year.

He complained that the company, which is majority-owned by Latin America's largest steelmaking group, Ternium, mainly exports its steel, leaving Venezuelans to import the product from as far away as China.

Venezuela's exchange controls prompt some companies to put a priority on selling products abroad to ensure they are paid in a foreign currency rather than the local bolivar, which trades on the black market at almost half its official rate.

"Before exporting a single ton abroad, first you have to guarantee me that all the [Venezuelan] companies are supplied," Chávez said Saturday.

The parent company's share price fell to an almost two-month low immediately after his statement Thursday.

Chávez's threat to nationalize banks also caused Venezuelan financial stocks to fall Friday. The decline was led by Venezuelan banks like Mercantil Servicios Financieros CA, Banesco Banco Universal and Venezolano de Credito whose shares are mostly held by local investors.