LatinNews Daily - 15 April 2026

*Máximo Pacheco, the president of Chile’s state-owned copper company Codelco, has stated that the company bought all the sulphuric acid it needs for the year “two or three months ago”. In comments made at the CRU World Copper Conference in Santiago which have been widely disseminated in the local press, Pacheco said that Codelco had bought the sulphuric acid, which is essential for some copper extraction methods, at “old prices and in sufficient quantities to cover all needs”. This comes amid reports in the international press that China will halt exports of sulphuric acid from May in order to conserve domestic supplies. This is likely to further drive up prices of the chemical which have already been rising due to the disruption caused by the war in Iran. According to Bloomberg, Chile buys over 1m tonnes of sulphuric acid from China every year and around a fifth of the copper output in Chile involves processing that depends on sulphuric acid.