Congo Copper Shipments Stopped Due to Ebola

Botswana barred entry to anyone traveling from the Democratic Republic of Congo to prevent an Ebola outbreak in that country from spreading, blocking shipments of copper from Africa’s biggest producer of the metal.

Botswana’s Department of Immigration & Citizenship instructed its personnel to prohibit travelers from entering the country in an Aug. 25 directive obtained today. Hakuna Matata Sarl, Congo’s biggest hauler of copper and cobalt produced by companies including Freeport McMoRan Inc. (FCX) and Jinchuan Group (2362), said at least 20 of its trucks had been halted at Kazungula on Botswana’s border with Zambia.

“All trucks entering from the Democratic Republic of Congo are being denied entry into Botswana,” Hakuna Matata General Manager Frederic Gilson said today in a phone interview from Ndola in northern Zambia. “We are busy diverting all our trucks to Zimbabwe through Livingstone. Zimbabwe is still open.”

Congo was the world’s sixth-largest producer of copper last year, according to U.K.-based commodity-research company CRU Group, and the largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used in rechargeable batteries. Most of Congo’s copper is transported about 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles) by road from Katanga province to South Africa’s port city of Durban, or east to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital.

via Bloomberg

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza