webGuinée / La crise de l'An 2007

Le point de non-retour

Bloomberg News
Alcoa, Global Alumina's Guinea Work Halted by Strike (Update4)

By Rose Skelton and Stewart Bailey

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — Alcoa Inc., the world's largest aluminum producer, and Global Alumina Corp. both halted operations in Guinea as a nationwide strike that has so far claimed 27 lives entered its 13th day.

“Workers are participating in the work stoppage as they are across the entire country,” Kevin Lowery, a spokesman for New York-based Alcoa, said in a telephone interview today from Pittsburgh. “For the most part, things are not operating.”

Labor unions in Guinea, the world's biggest bauxite producer, began an indefinite nationwide strike Jan. 10, calling for President Lansana Conte to resign because of his age and health. Conte, a diabetic who turns 73 this year, seized power in a military coup in 1984.

Alcoa Inc. and Alcan Inc., the world's second-largest producer of the metal, both own stakes in Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee, or CBG, a mining joint venture with the Guinean government. The mines produce about 13 million metric tons of alumina a year, most of which is used to supply smelters owned by the North American companies. Bauxite is an ore used to make aluminum.

Global Aluminum, also based in New York, is the developer of a $2.8 billion alumina refinery in Guinea. Employees at the company had previously been allowed by labor unions to carry out minimal amounts of work at its operations, Mamady Youla, the company's director general, said in a telephone interview today from the capital, Conakry.

Shot Dead

“Since the unions saw that they weren't able to negotiate with the government, they have radicalized the strike and now no- one is working” he said. “Everyone is in the streets protesting,” Youla said.

Police shot dead 17 protesters across Guinea today as violence erupted after demonstrators tried to march through the city, Agence France-Presse reported, citing unidentified residents. The shootings bring the death toll in the strike to 27 since it began, it said.

Global Alumina's shares fell 4 cents, or 3.9 percent, to C$1 at 11:11 a.m. in Toronto, for a market value of $199.8 million. The stock has dropped 15 percent this year. Alcoa's stock has gained 4.6 percent, valuing the company at $27.2 billion. The price of aluminum on the London Metal Exchange has gained 1.9 percent since the strike began.

‘Completely Uncertain’

OAO Russian Aluminium, or Rusal, the world's third-largest aluminum producer, said its plants are operating as normal, although its alumina exports may soon be affected by the strike. The country's railways have also been blocked since late yesterday, AFP said, citing an unidentified person.

“If the strike continues we may have difficulties in the next few days with alumina shipments,” Vera Kurochkina, a spokeswoman for Rusal, said by e-mail. “We may consider a possibility to decrease production if the situation in the port remains unchanged.”

Rusal manages a bauxite mine and an alumina refinery that can produce 2.8 million tons of alumina annually. The company plans to invest $2.65 billion in Guinea.

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., Africa's largest gold producer, said about a fifth of the 1,250 people at its Siguiri gold mine, the country's largest, stayed away from work and its office in Conakry remains closed. Production hasn't been affected at the operation, spokesman Alan Fine said today from the company's Johannesburg headquarters.

Union representatives and government officials failed to resolve their differences in negotiations held in Conakry at the weekend, Gilles Olakounle Yabi, head of the International Crisis Group's west Africa project, said in a telephone interview today from the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

“The government hasn't proposed any solutions,” he said. “The unions say they are open to discussion, but the government is not ready to talk about the appointment of a prime minister so the situation is completely uncertain.”

In addition to calling for his resignation, the unions have demanded that Conte replace the prime minister, restructure the economy and fight corruption in the country.