Sidor asks Venezuelan government to declare budget emergency

The board of Venezuelan state-run steelmaker Siderúrgica del Orinoco (Sidor) asked Venezuela's Vice-President Office to consider declaring a budget emergency in the steel plant, with the aim of obtaining additional resources. This request was made in a report issued on Monday 11 that presents an assessment of the current situation of the company after its nationalization. The goal of the steelmaker, as stated in the document, is to support communities. Within this framework, the report contains both the request to declare a budget emergency and a proposal to adjust the prices of Sidor products traded in the domestic market. For the board of the nationalized company, the gap in prices in the domestic market with respect to prices in international markets implies 'a loss of USD 172 million of additional revenues from August to December 2008.'