A two-week strike at the Angamos port is severely affecting Chile’s copper exports and the main companies operating in the country. Almost $130 million worth of Codelco’s December income has been sliced due to the tie-up, now joined by six other Chilean terminals.
Workers at the seaports of Iquique, Antofagasta and San Antonio, for instance, stopped working this week in support of the demands raised by their colleagues.
According to Scotiabank mining information, Angamos is a container port that handles cathode shipments from Codelco’s Chuquicamata, Gaby and Radomiro Tomic mines, as well as from BHP Billiton’s Escondida and Spence mines. Besides, the Chilean producer uses the San Antonio Port to ship sulphuric acid from El Teniente mine, in order to produce copper cathode in the north of the country.
Here’s an infographic from DF.cl (in Spanish) that provides a visual analysis of the strike:
Alfonso Salazar, Scotiabank Latam mining analyst, believes the tension appears to be increasing as there are already seven Chilean ports that have stopped operations. Also, the union at Biobio ports will vote on a possible strike in the coming days.
So far, the giant Codelco, owner of over 11 percent of the world’s copper reserves, is the company that took the biggest hit. Back in July of 2011, for instance, a one-day strike cost the firm $40 million. This time, the numbers will be much higher.