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UPDATE 1-Sonami sees '09 Chile copper output at 5.53 mln t
Thu, 22nd Jan 2009 15:16
SANTIAGO, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Chile's second-biggest mining association, Sonami, on Thursday forecast Chilean copper output will rise 3.75 percent this year from 2008 to 5.53 million tonnes, but forecast export revenue would halve.
'The current crisis situation has ... hit mining, irrespective of (a company's) size,' Alfredo Ovalle, Sonami's president, told a news conference.
He forecast the value of copper exports at $21.5 billion in 2009, down around 50 percent from 2008 levels.
Ovalle forecast that copper prices would average between $1.40 and $1.80 per lb this year, a slightly wider range than the $1.50 to $1.80 per lb he forecast a week ago.
Ovalle said 12,000 jobs had been cut in the mining industry since the global financial crisis began, not including 2,000 job cuts in Chile announced by BHP Billiton, the world's largest diversified miner, on Wednesday.
Chile is the world's largest copper producer, feeding about a third of global demand,
and revenue from the red metal has helped drive powerful growth in the South American country in recent years.
Since September, when copper prices nosedived with the deepening global economic crisis, investment plans have been cut by as much of 25 percent, according to Chilean not-for-profit copper industry think-tank CESCO.
Chile's state copper commission Cochilco this month maintained its 2009 average copper price outlook at around $1.60 a lb -- a far cry from life highs of over $4 a lb hit just last July.
(Reporting by Pav Jordan, Writing by Simon Gardner; editing by Jim Marshall) Keywords: CHILE SONAMI/COPPER
(simon.gardner@reuters.com; +562 370 4250; Reuters Messaging: simon.gardner.reuters.com@reuters.net)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.
The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
'The current crisis situation has ... hit mining, irrespective of (a company's) size,' Alfredo Ovalle, Sonami's president, told a news conference.
He forecast the value of copper exports at $21.5 billion in 2009, down around 50 percent from 2008 levels.
Ovalle forecast that copper prices would average between $1.40 and $1.80 per lb this year, a slightly wider range than the $1.50 to $1.80 per lb he forecast a week ago.
Ovalle said 12,000 jobs had been cut in the mining industry since the global financial crisis began, not including 2,000 job cuts in Chile announced by BHP Billiton, the world's largest diversified miner, on Wednesday.
Chile is the world's largest copper producer, feeding about a third of global demand,
Since September, when copper prices nosedived with the deepening global economic crisis, investment plans have been cut by as much of 25 percent, according to Chilean not-for-profit copper industry think-tank CESCO.
Chile's state copper commission Cochilco this month maintained its 2009 average copper price outlook at around $1.60 a lb -- a far cry from life highs of over $4 a lb hit just last July.
(Reporting by Pav Jordan, Writing by Simon Gardner; editing by Jim Marshall) Keywords: CHILE SONAMI/COPPER
(simon.gardner@reuters.com; +562 370 4250; Reuters Messaging: simon.gardner.reuters.com@reuters.net)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.
The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
