Chinese firms do brisk business in Venezuela despite idle factories

SAN FRANCISCO DE YARE, Venezuela, (Reuters) – Five years after Chinese home appliance maker Haier agreed to build a $912 million factory in Venezuela, its washing machines and refrigerators are almost the only ones available in the country’s department stores.

Yutong buses are seen during the opening ceremony of a new avenue and the inauguration of a public transportation route in Los Teques, Venezuela May 16, 2015. Reuters/Marco Bello

Those appliances, however, are not made in Venezuela.

They are instead imported from Haier factories in China and paid for through an oil-for-loans deal dating from 2007 under which China lends cash and is repaid in crude and fuel.

The cost of leaving Haier’s facility idle is primarily borne by Venezuela’s socialist government, because its construction was bankrolled with $800 million borrowed from China.