President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has signed a decree to nationalize the country’s biggest steelmaker, Ternium-Sidor. Argentina’s Techint, which owns 60 percent of the company, has been given until the end of June to hand it over.

According to the BBC News, “in the past two years the Venezuelan state has taken over foreign-controlled companies including cement, telecoms, oil, gas and electricity firms.”

After trade union talks broke down last month, President Chavez threatened to nationalize the steelmaker. The workers wanted pay raises and more benefits. When a price for the controlling-stake could not be agreed, talks between the government and Techint broke down earlier this month.

The newly-appointed president of Ternium-Sidor is Rudolfo Sanz, the minister of basic industries and mining. The Venezuelan government already owned 20 percent of the shares and had first threatened to take control of the company last year unless its owners agreed to sell more of its steel to President Chavez.

To read the entire article from BBC, link here:

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