Copper market’s biggest whale fuels speculation of a major shift
The world’s single biggest buyer of copper, State Grid Corp. of China, has slowed its purchases of copper wire this year.
Global miner BHP reached a preliminary deal with the supervisors’ union at its Escondida mine in Chile, avoiding a strike at the world’s largest copper deposit, the company announced late on Wednesday.
In late September, the union’s members rejected a proposal from the company, prompting government mediation to avoid a work stoppage.
“It was agreed to extend the mediation for an additional day in order to finalise and sign a new collective bargaining agreement once it has been ratified by its members,” BHP said in a statement on Wednesday night.
“The company continues to operate normally,” it added.
In 2022, Escondida produced 1.05 million metric tons of copper.
(By Fabián Andrés Cambero and Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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