SÃO PAULO — A stevedores’ strike at the Port of Angamos in Chile has delayed shipments for copper producer Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (Codelco).

“The port is receiving (copper), but it is not shipping it. There is only one (Codelco) ship waiting,” a company executive told AMM sister publication Metal Bulletin.

The official declined to say how much copper was halted in Angamos or where it was headed.

Some workers at Angamos, about 40 miles from Antofagasta city in northern Chile, have been striking since March 16.

“On March 21, the conflicting parties, concessionaire and port workers sat to talk,” the company noted, describing the development as “positive.”

Angamos, inaugurated in 2003 as part of the Chilean port complex Mejillones, is one of the several ports in the north of the country used to export products, according to the Chilean newspaper La Tercera.

The strike comes soon after the Santiago, Chile-based company’s unionized workers threatened to go on a 24-hour “surprise stop” within the next 30 days to demand job stability (amm.com, March 19). 

A version of this article was first published by AMM sister publication Metal Bulletin.