A strike at Colombia’s most productive mine in the northern Guajira department has so far not had the drastic effect on “the entire world,” predicted by the country’s president Juan Manuel Santos.
European coal prices for 2014 have hardly changed according to Bloomberg, as increased exports from the United States are expected to soften the effect of the strike at the Cerrejon mine which began on February 7.
MORE: Colombia coal mine strike would ‘damage entire world’: Santos
The day afterthe price of coal for 2014 delivery to northwest Europe rose
Workers in the mine owned by BHP Billiton Ltd., Xstrata Plc and Anglo American Plc, went on strike last week demanding an 8.5% pay rise and improved health care benefits. Cerrejon had offered its 5,600 workers a 5% increase which is still “very far from the workers perspectives,” according to a union official.
Side effects from the strike