Falling commodity prices threaten Cuban nickel sector
Cuba’s nickel bonanza has apparently come to a halt. Battered by industrial problems and falling commodity prices, the sector that created a soft cash cushion for the troubled Cuban economy is yielding less these days — and the outlook seems gloomy.
Back in 2007, the island produced more than 70,000 tons of nickel, generating $2.3 bil- lion export earnings. But that’s looking more and more like a distant memory.
Cuba stopped disclosing its nickel output in 2007. In that year, according to the Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas (ONE)’s Statistical Yearbook, the island produced 72,968.4 tons of non-refined nickel plus cobalt, up from 71,707.5 tons in 2006 but 4.8% below 2005’s record production of 76,641.3 tons.
Reuters reported 2008 and 2009 production figures as 70,400 and 70,100 tons respectively. That translates into export earnings of $1.2 billion in 2008 and $870 million in 2009.
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