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Miners in the African copperbelt, which accounts for more than a tenth of global production, typically transport copper overland to South Africa\u2019s ports, where it is exported mainly to China, the world\u2019s biggest consumer of the metal.<\/p>\n
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The novel coronavirus that has killed more than 21,000 people globally has roiled markets and disrupted supply chains as governments impose restrictions on movement to curb its spread.<\/p>\n
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Communications from port authorities showed South Africa\u2019s bulk terminals \u2013 ports processing imports and exports of mineral commodities \u2013 would shut for the duration of the lockdown.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAll bulk terminals (mineral mining commodities) will be closed,\u201d a note from national port operator Transnet Port Terminals said, according to a\u00a0shipping\u00a0agent who asked not to be identified.<\/p>\n
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Contacted by Reuters, Transnet Port Terminals did not confirm that mineral commodities would not be exported.<\/p>\n
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The most immediate impact is likely to be on dry bulk freight rates, which are already languishing under the pressure of diminished demand, while amply-supplied copper markets can absorb the disruption unless it gets significantly extended, analysts said.<\/p>\n
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The note said the multi-purpose terminals of East London, Saldanha, Port Elizabeth and Maydon Wharf would be closed, as well as all automotive terminals. The manganese export terminal of Port Elizabeth would also shut.<\/p>\n
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\u201cTransnet has taken a decision to scale down all of its transportation services and operations for non-essential cargo during the period of the state of lockdown,\u201d the managers of Richards Bay terminals said in a letter to clients seen by Reuters.<\/p>\n
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Only agricultural bulk products such as grains, soya bean meal, fertiliser and wood chips, deemed essential during the lockdown, would still be handled, the note said.<\/p>\n
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The port closures also affect chrome and cobalt exporters, industry sources said.<\/p>\n
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South Africa has three-quarters of the world\u2019s chrome resources and exported 4 million tonnes of chrome ore in 2018, mainly to China, mines ministry data shows.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey will not be taking in cargo or outloading cargo as the terminal will not have staff,\u201d another note, shared by an industry source, said, with reference to the bulk terminal at Durban port, South Africa\u2019s main gateway for copper exports.<\/p>\n
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South Africa exported copper worth $209 million in 2018, according to United Nations COMTRADE data, while China imported 25,000 tonnes of Zambian copper.<\/p>\n
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MINERS COULD RE-ROUTE<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Copper miner First Quantum on Tuesday said it was managing the export of its Zambian copper production through \u201calternate routes\u201d because of controls on ports and transit routes in South Africa.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n First Quantum did not give details of its alternative routes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But industry sources said copper miners were likely to use the port of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Miners in the African copperbelt, which accounts for more than a tenth of global production, typically transport copper overland to South Africa\u2019s ports, where it is exported mainly to China, the world\u2019s biggest consumer of the metal. The novel coronavirus that has killed more than 21,000 people globally has roiled markets and disrupted supply chains …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[3815,2412,1373,3816,1083,953,1623,3817],"class_list":["post-6884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-add","tag-african","tag-closures","tag-commodity","tag-market","tag-port","tag-south","tag-turmoil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/6885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}