Morning Bites

🇨🇱 Workers at Antofagasta’s Centinela copper mine have begun a strike, as wage negotiations failed, Reuters reports. The striking employees represent >20% of direct workforce at Centinela, which produced 240kt of copper in 2025 (~1% of global mined Cu supply)

Although the company's management does not yet expect changes to its production outlook for 2026, a prolonged strike could add more pressure to already constrained global Cu supply, in our view. To recap, Chilean copper output (~24% of global mined supply) dropped a record 8% YoY in 8mo26, amid declining ore grades and unfavourable weather conditions

We maintain our bullish view on copper, amid both short- and long-term supply issues, growing global demand for renewables and surging investments in China’s grid infrastructure (~8% of global Cu demand, on our numbers)

#copper