About Us

Our History

Siderúrgica Venezolana “Sivensa” S.A., the first steel and rebar producer company in Venezuela, was incorporated in Caracas in 1948 and began operations in 1950. After difficulties to begin operating, a few years after its founding, the company consolidated an advantageous position in the manufacture of rebar for the Venezuelan construction industry. The company would keep growing in the following five decades thanks to a diversification strategy in the iron, steel and metal-mechanic sectors.

During the sixties, the company entered into the automotive industry, partnering with important companies from the United States that manufacture vehicle parts. Also, during such decade, the wire rod transformation processes begin, producing electro-welded mesh for the construction industry.

In the 1970s, the company consolidated its position in the automotive market, becoming the local leader in the production of parts for cars and trucks, in both original parts, aimed at local assemblers, and spare parts, aimed at wholesalers of parts.

Sivensa was also improving in the growth of its portfolio of steel products for the construction industry, by acquiring the company Sidetur, dedicated to the production of angles and steel beams, located in the city of Barquisimeto.

Aware of the importance of training its human resources, in 1976, Sivensa created Fundación Metalmecánica para la Capacitación Industrial “Fundametal”, with the initial mission of providing specialized instruction to metalworking employees at its automotive plants, located mainly in the industrial zone of Valencia.

Throughout the success story of the company, Fundametal far exceeded its initial goals and objectives: The Foundation expanded the scope of its training courses from industrial apprentices to fourth level studies; extended its area of operation to Caracas, Puerto Ordaz and Barquisimeto; and provided courses not only to Sivensa employees, but also to employees of other companies. Today, Fundametal has more than two hundred client companies for its professional training courses which are attended by more than thirty thousand people a year.

The following decade constituted an important period in the development of Sivensa, both in its existing business lines and in the advancement of its diversification strategy.

Building on its operational experience in the steel and metal-mechanic industry and the formation of strategic alliances with important international partners, the company ventures into three important sectors of Venezuelan industries during those years: the first, the production of galvanized wires for the agricultural industry, livestock and wires for the manufacturing of mattresses; the second, the manufacture of equipment for the oil industry; and finally, in the third, Sivensa acquires a leading position in the international production and marketing of reduced iron briquettes, a sector that resulted in the growth of its export businesses.

Sivensa enters the nineties with important challenges ahead. Its iron and steel operations grow substantially in the Puerto Ordaz area with the start of Casima, a new steel plant, and Venprecar, a new Midrex technology HBI plant.

In parallel, with the start-up of its new industrial facilities, the company faces drastic changes when the new government’s industrial policy enacts a program of economic adjustments to restore equilibriums in the balance of payments and in fiscal accounts.

Productivity, economies of scale and international quality standards become key success factors for companies that had developed under an import substitution policy. In the local market, there is competition with imported products and exports to the international markets become a path towards growth.

Sivensa works to make the necessary adjustments in the organization; it extensively reviews its product portfolio to determine its production priorities and to identify its export potential and, from a commercial point of view, relies on its network of international partners in the automotive sector to channel an important part of its export.

In a very short period, the company becomes the country’s largest non-traditional private industrial exporter, shipping its products mainly to the markets of Colombia and of the United States.

During the second half of the 90s, Sivensa made three major investments. The first, aimed at the reorganization and modernization of its steel plants as a result of a more competitive environment in the Venezuelan economy; the second, in order to participate in the privatization process of Siderurgica del Orinoco “Sidor”, and the third aimed at increasing its capacity for the production and export of iron briquettes. At the end of 1997, Sivensa created its subsidiary International Briquettes Holding “IBH”, which, after consolidating the two direct reduction briquette plants Fior and Venprecar, partners with an Australian transnational corporation to build the iron briquette plant, Orinoco Iron, which began operations in the year 2000.

It is also at the end of the 1990’s when the company faces its own set of risks from the globalization process. The international economic crisis, which originates with the so-called Asian Crisis and the subsequent fall of the Russian and Brazilian economies, directly affects the Venezuelan economy, which experiences a recession in the second half of the year 1998. For a couple of years, the financial results of the company were negatively affected by a drop in the volume of local sales and a drastic drop in export prices.

Sivensa, undertakes an organizational restructure aimed at focusing its activities in the steel, wire and briquette sectors. As part of this restructuring process, the company sells its stake in the oil and automotive operations and adjusts the size of its corporate offices to manage a smaller business portfolio focused in steel and iron related activities.

Starting in 2004, Sivensa’s steel and iron briquette businesses experience significant growth as a result of the increase in economic activity in Venezuela and the high demand for raw materials for the steel industry around the world.

In 2006, positive results in Sidetur as a result of its strategies to increase productivity, modernize its equipment and increase capacity in the areas of greatest demand, allow this subsidiary to refinance its debt with international banks by issuing Bonds maturing in 2016.

By the end of the first decade of 2000, the national government’s policies are aimed at increasing the participation of the public sector in the national economy, mainly in what they call strategic areas or sectors of the economy. The steel industry is identified as a strategic area of ​​the economy and as a result, starting in 2009, the government, starting with Sidor, begins to take control of the operations of both local and international iron and steel companies.

Expropriation and nationalization processes of Subsidiaries Orinoco Iron, Venprecar and Sidetur

At the beginning of February 2010, the Venezuelan State, unilaterally and exclusively, took control and assumed the management of the hot-briquetted iron producers, Venprecar and Orinoco Iron, both subsidiaries of Sivensa (through IBH), which entailed the occupation and exploitation of their industrial plants. located in Puerto Ordaz, Bolívar State.

At the end of October 2012, the Venezuelan State, through the state-owned company Complejo Siderurgico Nacional, S.A., took possession and control of the industrial plants and assets of the subsidiary Sidetur, located in various parts of the country, as well as the money funds that constituted the working capital of said subsidiary. Since the same time, Sidetur has been intervened by a Temporary Administrative Board appointed by the National Executive, for all purposes related to the expropriation of its industrial assets.

Currently, the company maintains close relations with the management of the subsidiaries that lost their jobs. This, with the purpose of being able to gather the management group in the event of a recovery of the industrial facilities or to maintain the capacity to participate in industrial or service projects in which the industrial and business experience of the company can be capitalized in the development of new activities and growth opportunities for both the company and the country.

At Sivensa, we believe that Venezuela is the base of our industrial activities and operations. In Venezuela, in addition to having developed a set of industrial companies with international projection, Sivensa brought together and met thousands of workers who demonstrated their capabilities and dedication to organized work in complex production processes, where the quality of the final products was valued not only as an imperative need to compete in international markets but as a testimony that we can be active and successful participants in the context of international economic activity.