Heavy rains slow growth of Peru copper output

Production of industrial metal increases at slowest pace in 2 years

Peru’s copper production rose by 5.42 percent in February from the same month a year earlier, the slowest growth rate in two years as the Andean country wrestles with infrastructure damage caused by torrential rains, official data showed on Saturday.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines said in a statement that copper production totaled 178,283 tons in February.

Peru’s entire mining sector, a key part of the economy, grew just 1.47 percent in February, compared with the 33.59 percent rise reported in February 2016, the ministry statement said.

The country has been hit by extraordinarily hard rains in 2017, which have destroyed thousands of kilometers of roads and caused other damage.

Peru, the world’s second biggest copper supplier, produced a record 2.35 million tons of the metal in 2016, up 38.4 percent from 2015.

Peru’s economy grew 0.74 percent in February versus February 2016, the weakest pace since late 2014 as construction and manufacturing activity contracted while mining slowed.

The government recently revised down its economic growth forecast for this year to 3 percent from a previous 3.8 percent.

The ministry statement said Peru’s gold production fell 11.91 percent in February, to 11,676,057 grams, while silver fell 11.29 percent, to 325,925 kilograms.

Workers at Peru’s top copper mine, Freeport- McMoRan’s Cerro Verde, started an indefinite strike in March that halted 95 percent of production of about 40,000 tons per month, according to a Reuters report in March.

Southern Copper Corp hopes to dissuade workers at its Toquepala and Cuajone mines in Peru from striking in April, as a second labor union in 2017 in the world’s No. 2 copper producer seeks a larger share of profits.

One financial markets, copper prices have risen since Donald Trump’s election to the US presidency as an inflation hedge amid expectations his plans to boost fiscal spending will fan prices.

The South American country became the world’s secondbiggest copper producer thanks to rising output from new mines commissioned during the commodities boom earlier this century.