Venezuelan steelmaker Sidor shuts all operations after energy blackout
Last edited Tue Mar 19, 2019, 07:15 PM - Edit history (1)
Venezuela's largest steelmaker Sidor shut all operations after the country's energy blackout March 8, sources within the mill said Tuesday.
There was no timetable for resumption, the sources said.
When contacted, Sidor did not respond.
The company's steelmaking operations have been offline since August 2018, while other units, including its pellet plant, were operating at reduced levels before the blackout.
The power outage affected most of the country and was the worst in decades, local and international media reported.
Venezuela's steel and iron markets have remained at a standstill as a result of ongoing strikes in basic industry sectors since August, tightening supply and production.
Sidor had planned to have all six electric arc furnaces fully operational in 2018, although sources have questioned whether it will achieve this goal even in 2019.
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/metals/031919-venezuelan-steelmaker-sidor-shuts-all-operations-after-energy-blackout
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Sidor, yet another formerly-fully functional and profitable industry completely destroyed by chavismo. But hey, they let "the pueblo" run it, so there's that.
And then there was this about the aluminum industry:
This is how an electrochemical aluminium reduction cell, the heart of an aluminium factory, works: within a metal structure about 15 mts. wide, an anode with a positive charge and a cathode with a negative charge exchange electrons to transform aluminium trioxide, or alumina. With the aid of an electric resistance that reaches temperatures above 900° C, aluminium atoms split from oxygen atoms. The aluminium, cleared of all chemical impurity, precipitates to the bottom of the recipient as liquid metal.
A cell works continuously for 1,800 hours, as the components of the chemical reaction are depleted. For every 24 hours of work, each cell consumes 25,000 kWh. Venalum has an installed capacity of 905 cells; Alcasa, whose technology is more outdated, has 596. Venalum’s fifth line alone consumed 4.5 million kWh, equivalent to the monthly consumption of 90,000 homes, with a ratio of 1,500 kWh per month.
If a cell spends more than two hours without power, the electrochemical process within stops and the primary aluminium at the bottom of the cell starts solidifying, neutralizing the reduction device.
https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2019/03/14/the-big-blackout-of-the-venezuelan-aluminium-industry/
And this:
There was also the shutdown of 73 aluminium reduction cells in the Venalum and Alcasa processing plants in Puerto Ordaz, Bolivar, cells that cannot be used again and represent a massive production blow. The cost of replacing each cell is around $240K, so we’re talking of about $14.1 million here.
https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2019/03/14/the-price-tag-of-the-blackout/
Just another day in the People's Socialist Paradise of Venezuela.
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........though I'd have to spend some time to look up the exact figures of when it maxed out and at what rate. I recall many years ago when I flew in and out of the country often, seeing the trucks waiting for unloading at La Guaira which is near the airport on the coast. The material on the trucks looked like this:
Sidor, from what I recall, was heavily involved in the making of oilfield tubing (drill and production pipe), which was a logical product for them to make with so many wells being drilled and completed at one time. Where they exporting their tubing products? I do not know.