Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday nationalized the country's biggest steelmaker Ternium-Sidor, which is majority owned by Argentina's Techint.
Chavez signed the decree into law after announcing last month he would nationalize the company, which employs around 12,000 workers, following a breakdown in union contract talks.
"Today, next to these furnaces in the middle of Siderurgica del Orinoco (Sidor steel company), I have enacted the law by which we're recovering the steel company," Chavez said at the Ternium-Sidor steel mill in Ciudad Guyana, 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of Caracas.
Chavez set a June 30 deadline for transfer of all Ternium-Sidor assets to the government.
At present, Argentina's Techint owns 60 percent of Sidor, which produced 4.3 million tonnes of liquid steel in 2006.
Chavez also appointed Industry and Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz as the nationalized company's president.
