Venezuela's Sidor sets recovery plan for 2016-2018

Venezuela's largest steelmaker Sidor has received approval for its productive recovery plan from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the company has said.

The final goal of the plan is to produce 4 million mt of crude steel by 2018, Sidor said late Friday.

The plan will have six steps: The first is already on course with the activation of the electric arc furnace N.1 of the billets area, also the resumption of the Line B of pellets, the Midrex I and rolling trains of wire rod and rebar.

"In the first month of this plan, we were able to produce 45,000 mt of crude steel, which were rolled into rebar and wire rod," said Sidor President Justo Noguera Pietri.

The second phase, currently ongoing, projects a monthly output of 100,000 mt of crude steel. For that, it is necessary to resume a second EAF, two direct reduced iron (DRI) areas, Midrex I and Midrex II, and receive the enough amounts of ferroalloys and refractories.

Between September 2016 to January 2017, Sidor aims to start the phase three, when it will aims to operate with three EAF and three DRI areas -- Midrex I, II, and HyL II unit. For that, the company would need 569 megawatts/month of energy supply, and 300,000 mt/month of iron ore.

Phases four and five are connected with the reactivation of pellets' Line A, slated for in the first quarter of 2017, and the fourth and fifth EAFs, respectively.

In the latest phase, to be concluded by 2018, it expects to have full productive capacity of its six EAFs -- two located in the billets area, four in the slabs area. For that stage, Sidor expects to receive 1039 megawatts/month, and 673,562 mt of iron ore.

Sidor's installed capacity allows production of 425,000 mt/month, or 5.1 million mt/year of crude steel. It also can produce 2.8 million mt/year of hot-rolled coil, 1.7 million mt/year of cold-rolled coil, 390,000 mt/year of rebar and 600,000 mt/year of wire rod, among other products.

The company also produces tubes and semi-finished steel products.

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