Peru copper exports plummet 20% even as production rises

Peruvian copper exports fell 20% in the first two months of the year as production climbed, leaving miners with mounting inventory and contributing to tight global supplies. 

The world’s No. 2 copper producer is recovering from its worst social unrest in decades, which triggered consecutive economic contractions in January and February. Meanwhile, copper production rose by 5% in the same period. 

Although the unrest has all but faded, miners are struggling with a fresh challenge: moving tens of thousands of tons of copper concentrate from the Andes onto seaports to be shipped and sold. MMG Ltd. said in March it had 85,000 tons of copper stored in its Las Bambas mine and that it would take until the last quarter of the year to ship it all. 

Exports at Las Bambas were the most impacted by the unrest, according to statistics published by Peru’s ministry of foreign trade and tourism. The company shipped 55% less copper in the first two months of this year than in the same period in 2022. 

The top three copper miners also saw two-digit declines. Exports by Antamina, co-owned by BHP Group Ltd., Glencore Plc. and Teck Resources Ltd., fell 11%. Exports at Freeport-McMoran Inc.’s Cerro Verde fell 24% while exports by Grupo Mexico’s Southern Copper Corp. fell 23%.