China base metal prices tumble
From The Guardian, April 7, 2025
Base metal prices in China fell sharply on Monday amid the escalating global trade war, with copper prices sliding to a more than three-month low.
The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) dropped 7% to 73,640 yuan per metric ton as of 0138 GMT, marking its lowest level in over three months since 3 January, Reuters reports.
The benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 1.9% to $8,614.5 per metric ton.
China – a top metals consumer – hit back on Friday with additional 34% tariffs on all US goods from 10 April, after Donald Trump imposed a 34% tariff on most Chinese goods as part of his sweeping reciprocal tariff program.
A base metals trader said:
With China’s markets closed last Friday, which coincides with significant declines in LME base metals, we anticipated a sharp drop in China’s commodity prices today. Some even hit their lower limits as soon as trading began.
Another trader said:
The retaliatory tariff makes us worry about trade war, which will impede economic growth globally.
SHFE aluminium slid 4.5% to 19,515 yuan a ton, zinc lost 4.2% to 22,195 yuan, lead fell 2.4% to 16,810 yuan, while nickel was down 6.7% to 120,370 yuan, tin fell 6.5% to 273,680 yuan.
Among other metals, LME aluminium lost 0.3% to $2,372.5 a ton, lead fell 0.3% to $1,901, zinc slid 0.8% to $2,639, tin was down 2.2% at $34,615 and nickel was down 0.1% at $14,775 a ton.
From The Guardian, Featured image credit Reuters https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/indonesia-stock-exchange-says-20-fall-would-see-trade-suspended-day-2025-04-08/
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In earlier news…
Sludge collapse kills 1 at a Chinese-funded nickel plant in Indonesia
Story by Mohammad Taufan, From MSN and Associated Press
PALU, Indonesia (AP) — One person is dead and two are missing after a nickel waste disposal site collapsed on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, officials said Wednesday. It was the latest deadly accident at Chinese-funded nickel smelting plants there.
The Indonesian victims were operating dump trucks on Saturday when they were engulfed by sludge-like material that is removed in ferronickel burning, said Deddy Kurniawan, spokesperson for PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, known as PT IMIP.
The collapse occurred after torrential rains.
The body of a 23-year-old was pulled out a day after the accident, and two others are feared dead under tons of waste material, police said.
Authorities are looking into whether negligence by the company led to the deaths, police said.
Nickel smelting plants in Indonesia are part of China’s global development program known as the Belt and Road Initiative. Nearly 50% of PT IMIP’s shares are owned by a Chinese holding company, and the rest are owned by two Indonesian companies.
Nickel is a key component of batteries for electric vehicles.
In December 2023, about 21 workers, including eight Chinese, died when the furnace at PT Indonesia Tsingshan Steel exploded while they were repairing it. The accident occurred inside a nickel processing-based industrial area under the management of PT IMIP.
In 2022, a truck ran over and killed a Chinese worker while he was repairing a road in PT IMIP’s mining area.
Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
Based on https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/sludge-collapse-kills-1-at-a-chinese-funded-nickel-plant-in-indonesia/ar-AA1BHsVR and https://m.antaranews.com/berita/4737853/basarnas-bantu-pencarian-korban-tertimbun-longsor-di-pt-imip.
In earlier news…
Alliance of Workers Unions Stage Demonstration at Morowali Nickel Miner PT IMIP
By National Workers’ Union (SPN), Feb 23, 2024
(SPNEWS) Bahodopi – The Alliance of Morowali Workers’ Unions (ASPIRASI), which is a combination of the National Workers’ Union (SPN), SPIM-KPBI, SPL-FSPMI, and SBIMI, lauched another two-day demonstration from February 22 to 23, 2024, in front of the offices of PT. Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Morowali Regency, Central Sulawesi.
The deputy head of the health and welfare section of Morowali Regency SPN local chapter, Mr. Yogi, called for the demands of workers to be accepted and implemented by PT IMIP, because these demands have become central to the concerns of workers employed at the IMIP plant.
“As workers, we demand the management of PT IMIP immediately review wage increases within the PT IMIP area in 2024, which only increased by Rp. 75,000 ($5) per month. We urge PT IMIP management to implement Minister of Labor Regulation No. 01/2017 concerning clear and maximum wage scales, and to be outlined in the form of wage components, as these components have so far been included in non-permanent allowances.
Furthermore, we urge the management of PT. IMIP to enforce Minister of Labor Decree No. 349/2019 concerning the positions held by foreign workers, because foreign workers continue to occupy a number of positions that should not be held by them,” he said.
“We also demand that the management of PT. IMIP stop union busting measures, because there are still union officials being sanctioned for carrying out organizational activities. The substandard service provided at the PT IMIP health clinic is also one of our demands in this action,” he added.
Mr. Yogi also stated that as a large-scale company and the largest nickel company in Southeast Asia, PT. IMIP should be able to carefully address issues like these, instead of ignoring them, because they relate to the welfare of employees, and would not impose an undue burden on company when viewed in terms of the profits it is reaping. Moreover, upon deeper scrutiny, the main points of the demands really just normative standards which in fact representent obligations employers have in respect of their employees. Especially when it comes to wage issues, workers are entitled to more than what they have produced so far.
Workers are not milking cows to be employed at their master’s pleasure, nor are they slaves who always submit to their master even though the value of the work done does not correspond to the income received. Workers have the right to live decently, workers have the right to sufficient income, and if these rights are not met, then workers also have the right to make demands and resist.
If today there are reckless claims stating that the reasons for the protests, resistance, demonstrations, and strikes are useless, then those claims are baseless, highly misleading, anachronistic and ridiculous. If workers remain silent and do not resist, then the situation is just an extension of the era of slavery for workers. With this, we invite every worker’s group to come together because in every corner of the country, in Morowali, in Bahodopi, at PT. IMIP, there are workers ready to struggle and reject every form of exploitation, ready to fight until the end, fight until every demand is met. He concluded.
Meanwhile, the deputy head of the Morowali Regency local chapter’s advocacy department, Mr. Andi Hamka, said that the two-day protest yielded results, although not yet optimal, because this is a matter of standards that employers are obliged to comply with.
“The meeting held by company representatives and representatives of labor unions affiliated with ASPIRASI agreed and attempted to optimize the services provided at the IMIP health clinic. The company would not use union busting measures, and if there are indications of union busting measures, they would report the matter to the PT IMIP’s human resources department for follow-up. Regarding the wage scale structure, the company felt that it has been implementing the wage scale structure all along, and if there are differences in interpretation, then the process for settling industrial relations’ disputes would be put into action,” he concluded.
This article is based on https://spn.or.id/aliansi-sp-sb-morowali-gelar-unjuk-rasa-di-pt-imip/.
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