Small and medium-sized companies that are dedicated to providing materials and services to operations mining They are against the ropes, since the stoppage of operations in mines such as Las Bambas (Apurímac) and Antapaccay (Cusco) has caused losses of more than US$100 million to be recorded.
The loss report comes from the Association of Mining Contractors of Peru (Acomipe) and considers the impact that several companies from different regions have registered since December due to activities related to operations in exploitation, services in treatment plants, sale of inputs and rentals and sale of machinery and equipment.
The general manager of Acomipe, Carlos Bernal, explained to Peru21 that the losses correspond to close to a hundred companies of all sizes that have seen their activities affected by not being able to reach or enter mining operations or that have seen the requirements that they usually received.
“When activities are suspended, the contractor companies see their payments delayed because they are paid up to where they carried out operations and they remain on standby to continue. When an operation is started, there are objectives, the liquidations are monthly and the stoppage also objects to those objectives. There are more than 100 contracting companies affected in different ways, not all of them have paralyzed contracts,” Bernal said.
An example of this situation is that contractor companies reduce the purchase of machinery by 30% because they cannot transport inputs and materials to the mining camps.
AFFECTED JOBS
The stoppages and affectation felt by suppliers also generate concern regarding the future of employment.
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“There are more than 10,000 direct jobs that could be at risk because the moment activities are completely paralyzed, the workers will lose their jobs,” he warned.
An example of this is that, only in the case of the Ayacucho region, there are more than 50,000 jobs that are related to mining, and this means that the impact of the sector is estimated at 200,000 people if families of the
workers.
PAYMENT OF OBLIGATIONS
This situation has also caused these companies to see their billing decrease and in turn have payment problems with their staff, suppliers and even their credits.
“Banks have been offering alternatives because their clients, the contractor companies, cannot meet all their obligations and are offering some solutions,” Bernal said.
In this context, he stressed that any problem observed by a contractor company “is not because it does not want to comply, but because the events that have occurred have affected its operations.”
KEEP IN MIND
Mining allows the creation of two million direct and indirect jobs nationwide, according to the National Confederation of Private Business Institutions (Confiep).
The Las Bambas mine alone holds contracts with more than 50 supplier companies.
