By Daina Beth Solomon and Fabian Cambero
SANTIAGO (Reuters) -Chile, the world’s No. 1 copper producer, is in wait-and-see mode after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a surprise 50% tariff on imports of the red metal, with the Andean nation blindsided while its top miner held out hope of exemptions.
In a phone call with Reuters shortly after Trump’s remarks, the chairman of Chilean state miner Codelco Maximo Pacheco said the firm wanted to know which copper products would be included and if the tariff would hit all countries.
“I believe what we need to do is understand what this is about. What products are affected? Because he referred to copper in general terms. But copper includes a variety of products,” Pacheco said on Tuesday in his first comments since the announcement.
“Then, we have to see whether this will apply to all countries or only some. We’ve always known that exceptions are made, and therefore, I think it’s premature to comment.”
U.S. Comex copper futures jumped more than 12% to a record high after Trump announced the planned tariffs.
Chile’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the Andean nation – the single biggest copper supplier to the U.S. – had not received any formal official communication regarding the implementation of U.S. copper tariffs.
“It is important to remember that we participated in the public consultations within the framework of the investigation carried out by the current U.S. administration,” the ministry said in a statement to Reuters.
“We continue to be in contact and dialogue on this and other matters with the competent authorities and technical teams.”
Chile, along with Canada and Peru, had previously pushed back against a probe by the Trump administration into imports of the metal and said they should not face tariffs.
Pacheco said the U.S. would need growing amounts of copper, which goes into electric vehicles, military hardware, the power grid and many consumer goods.
“The United States is a country that needs a lot of copper, and it will continue to need even more copper,” he said, adding it was getting harder to ramp up production. Codelco has seen output hit a 25-year low in recent years.
Pacheco estimated global demand would increase some 3% this year, which was creating a supply gap on top of flat output.
“The global copper supply is increasingly hard to raise. In fact, I believe that this year, it will be hard to produce more copper than last year,” he said. “We also have to consider the reality of what’s happening in the market.”
Chile sends most of its copper exports to China, which consumes half of the world’s copper each year.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Fabian Cambero, Editing by Adam Jourdan, Veronica Brown and David Gregorio)
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