http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN0347676720080404

Venezuela's Chavez nationalizes cement industry

Fri Apr 4, 2008 3:58am
EDT

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez on Thursday announced the
immediate nationalization of Venezuela's cement industry, a move that
will hit Mexico's Cemex, just a year after Chavez launched a wave of
state takeovers.

The former paratrooper last year launched a broad nationalization
crusade in the energy and telecommunications sectors while threatening
to go after other industries such as banking, cement and steel.

"Nationalize it, and as of this instant take all the legal measures ...
to nationalize in the short term all of the national cement industry,"
Chavez said during a televised speech.

Chavez has frequently accused private cement companies of exporting
their production rather than selling it into the domestic market to help
ease a housing shortage that has drawn complaints from his supporters.

Last year he warned of "corrective actions" against Venezuelan Cemex
VCM1.CRVCM2.CR, a local division of Cemex (CMXCPO.MX: Quote, Profile,
Research) after residents accused it of polluting.

Analysts at the time said Cemex was big enough that it would not likely
be affected by a takeover of its Venezuelan holdings.

Investors in recent weeks have started worrying that the world's No. 3
cement producer could face lower profits as a result of an economic
slowdown in the United States.

Venezuela in 2007 took over the assets of Cementos Andinos, owned by
Colombia's Argos CCB.CN.

Chavez threatened to nationalize steelmaker Ternium Sidor (TX.N: Quote,
Profile, Research) over domestic supply complaints but eventually
negotiated a deal to avoid it, and threatened to nationalize banks he
accused of poor lending practices, but never carried out the threat.

Thursday's announcement shows Chavez returning to his combative 2007
style of aggressive nationalizations after focusing this year on
practical issues following his defeat in a December referendum that
would have extended his socialist drive.

He promised to attack day-to-day issues like food shortages and rampant
crime after an energy sector nationalization drive that pushed Exxon
Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and ConocoPhillips (COP.N:
Quote, Profile, Research) out of the OPEC nation.

(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Eric Walsh)

© Reuters 2007.
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