Copper prices rose on Tuesday on fears that Chile, the largest producer, would strike.
Copper delivered in July rose by 1.1% over Monday's settlement price, hitting $4.08 per pound (US $9484 per ton) on the Comex market in New York on Tuesday morning.
A trade union official said that the workers of Codelco, a Chilean state-owned enterprise, would start a nationwide strike on Wednesday to protest the decision of the government and the company to close a troubled smelter.
"We will start the first shift on Wednesday," Amador Pantoja, chairman of the Federation of copper workers (FTC), told Reuters on Monday.
If the board did not invest in upgrading the troubled smelter in the saturated Industrial Zone on the central coast of Chile, the workers had threatened to hold a national strike.
On the contrary, Codelco said on Friday that it would terminate its Ventanas smelter, which had been closed for maintenance and operation adjustment after the recent environmental incident caused dozens of people in the region to become ill.
Related: Chilean tax reform, mining concessions "first priority", the minister said
Union workers insisted that Ventanas needed $53million for capsules to retain gas and allow the smelter to operate under environmental compliance, but the government rejected them.
At the same time, China's strict "zero novel coronavirus" policy of continuously monitoring, testing and isolating citizens to prevent the spread of coronavirus has hit the country's economy and manufacturing industry.
Since the middle of May, the copper inventory in LME registered warehouses has been 117025 tons, down 35%.
Post time: Jun-22-2022