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Gold/Mining/Energy : Copper - analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stephen O who wrote (327)	7/5/2001 12:27:17 PM
From: Stephen O	Respond to of 2131

Chile Dockworkers Extend Strike, Block Copper Exports (Update1) (Adds details on union and stalled shipments in fourth and sixth paragraphs.) Santiago, July 4 (Bloomberg) -- Chilean dockworkers extended a strike at Antofagasta port for a sixth day, delaying shipments from the country's biggest port for copper exports in a bid to pressure shipping agents to boost wages. Unions began the protest on Friday afternoon to demand at least a 50 percent increase in their minimum wage of 10,000 pesos ($15.75) per day. Between 15,000 metric tons and 19,000 tons of copper cathodes, almost pure copper, were waiting to be loaded on ships as of yesterday, according to port officials. ``The platform near the train can't hold any more copper,'' said union director Luis Mendez, about the unloading area beside train tracks where copper is piled. About 400 striking workers voted at noon to reject an offer from shipping agents that fell short of their demands. The strike holds up copper shipments because Antofagasta exports about 1.5 million tons of copper annually from mines in the northern Chilean desert, or one-third of the country's output last year of about 4.6 million tons. Codelco, the world's biggest copper producer, uses the port for shipments of most of the copper from Chuquicamata, its biggest copper mine, and from Radomiro Tomic, its lowest-cost mine, Codelco spokesman Ivan Badilla said. Radomiro Tomic is storing between 650 tons and 700 tons per day of copper at the mine rather than sending it down to port, said mine manager Luis Farias. About 3,500 tons of copper from the Zaldivar mine, owned by Placer Dome Inc., are stuck at port, said mine spokesman Felipe Ruiz. A spokesman at shipping agent Agencias Universales SA, one of the companies negotiating with workers, wasn't available for comment. Copper prices fell 0.5 percent to $1,569 per metric ton for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange. --Heather Walsh in Santiago with reporting by Igor Munoz and Michael Smith, (562) 638-6820 or hlwalsh@bloomberg.net, or through the New York newsroom (212) 318-2730/hhy