The Zambian government has decided to go ahead with the application of a new import duty on copper concentrates this month despite strong opposition from the country's copper producers.
The producers told Fastmarkets on Thursday January 3 that they will be compelled to slash output and to lay off mine workers as a result of the new duty."No announcement has been officially issued by the government. We have just been told that we have to pay the import duty from now on," a Zambian producer source said. "We are all very angry."Over the first nine months of last year, 446,761 tonnes of copper concentrates were brought into Zambia, Africa's second-largest copper producer, according to the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS)."We will have to reduce output significantly," a second Zambian producer said.The 5%...