<They are already nearly out of nickel.>
Jees, this is just amazing. News just broke.
Reuters
UPDATE - Strike shuts Falconbridge Ontario nickel site
Sunday February 1, 1:58 pm ET
By Nicole Mordant
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Falconbridge Ltd. (Toronto:FL.TO - News) shut down mining and milling operations at its Sudbury, Ontario, site on Sunday as workers at the facility producing 5 percent of the world's nickel went on strike after rejecting a new labor contract.
"The picket lines are up. The company told us to get off their property," said Rick Grylls, president of the local unit of the Canadian Auto Workers, which represents 1,080 production and maintenance workers at the northern Ontario site.
At a time of a serious global shortage of nickel, the world's third-biggest producer said it had begun halting production at the Sudbury complex's four mines and mill after a three-year labor deal expired at midnight on Saturday with no consensus on wages, pensions and the use of contract workers.
The Sudbury smelter, which produced 57,900 tonnes of unrefined nickel in 2002, would be run at a reduced rate by a small number of non-union workers, Falconbridge spokesman Dale Coffin said. During the last strike at the unit, a six-month halt in 2000, the smelter was run at 50 percent to 60 percent capacity.
No more negotiations were scheduled, but both sides said they were keen to start talking again after the union rejected a revised offer from Toronto-based Falconbridge on Saturday and the company refused to budge.
Metals markets have been on tenterhooks about a strike at the Canadian operation as it comes at a time when the world is forecast to need 30,000 tonnes more nickel than can be supplied. Nickel is a key ingredient in stainless steel.
The work stoppage comes just four months after a supply-crippling, 13-week strike ended at Toronto-based Inco Ltd (Toronto:N.TO - News) , the world No. 2 producer.
A shutdown of the Sudbury mine, milling and smelting site will deplete world supplies by more than 4,000 tonnes a month. Smaller quantities of copper, cobalt and precious metals, which are mined as by-products of nickel, will also be lost.
Nickel prices more than doubled last year on supply worries and were expected to continue to rise with a Sudbury shutdown.
The Auto Workers union said on Saturday a key sticking point after more than two months of tough negotiations remained the company's desire to use non-union contract workers at its operations, threatening the livelihood of union members.
Other than metal ore from the Sudbury mines, Falconbridge's Sudbury smelter processes nickel concentrates from the company's Raglan mines in Quebec and recyclable feedstocks from third parties.
Falconbridge, which is 60 percent owned by Noranda (Toronto:NRD.TO - News), has a normal pipeline inventory of 8,000 tonnes of nickel. |
