If there were no "Revolution", today Cuba could be producing up to 300,000 tons of nickel annually and receiving billions of dollars from the export of this mineral, essential in the modern world.
The international price of nickel has been breaking historical records lately, last March 8 hitting the unbelievable figure of $100,000 per ton, after which it however above $55,000.
In the first quarter of 2022 the price of nickel was $48,241 per ton, the highest average ever, and is now fluctuating between $28,000 and $30,000 a ton.
But let's get to the point: since the middle of the 20th century Cuba has been in the grip of a statist, aberrant "Revolution," which is why it produces very little nickel. Thus, it is not benefiting from the current very high prices of this precious mineral, despite the fact that it has the fifth largest nickel reserves in the world, with 5.6 million tons, behind Indonesia (21 million tons), Australia (20 million), Brazil (16 million), and Russia (6.9 million).
The demand for nickel to obtain stainless steel has grown steadily due to new cutting-edge technologies in sectors like Aerospace, Automotive, Telecommunications, Medicine, and, lately, for electric car batteries. Now it has been bolstered even further by fears of shortages due to Russia's aggression against Ukraine and sanctions on Moscow, a major nickel exporter.
Well, Cuba has squandered this historic opportunity for a bonanza, when before Castroism it was one of the world leaders in the production and export of nickel.
Here it is necessary to take a step back in time: in 1960 Indonesia and Cuba produced almost the same amount of nickel; the Asian country, 19,753 tons, and Cuba in 1958 produced 18,000 tons.
Since then, capitalist Indonesia has multiplied its production 43 times, reaching 850,000 tons in 2019, before the pandemic; 760,000 tons in 2020 and 2021. It expects to surpass 900,000 tons in 2022.
Meanwhile, "revolutionary" Cuba increased its production capacity by a mere 4.1 times, to 74,000 tons of nickel at the beginning of this century, before receding. Lately it has been producing between 45,000 and 49,000 tons of nickel, 17 times less than Indonesia and 6.5 times less than the Philippines, which, with 320,000 tons per year, is the world's second largest producer.
In Cuba today there are only two nickel plants, since the René Ramos Latour facility, in Nicaro, built during World War II by a U.S. company, was closed in 2012 due to technological problems that the regime was unable to solve, despite heavy Canadian and Soviet investments. A technician at the plant, who gave us the name ‘José,’ assured us that all those technological problems could have been solved, but that "the bad work of those in charge" made the task impossible.
Cuba, from a global leader to the bottom of the list in nickel production
Contrary to all logic and reason, Cuba's nickel industry, instead of growing, is shrinking, and today ranks ninth or tenth on the global list of nickel producers, in close competition with the Dominican Republic and Guatemala, which sometimes surpass Cuba, despite the fact that both countries began producing nickel decades later.
According to US Government statistics, in 2020 the ten largest nickel producers in the world were: Indonesia (760,000 tons); Philippines (320,000 tons), Russia (280,000 tons), New Caledonia (200,000 tons) Australia (170,000 tons), Canada (150,000 tons), China (120,000 tons), Brazil (73,000 tons), Cuba (49,000 tons) and the Dominican Republic (47,000 tons).
Between 2000 and 2010, before the closure of the Nicaro plant, Cuban nickel production averaged 74,000 tons per year, and the goal was to reach 120,000. Now the objective is to reach 50,000 tons. Obviously, all the competing countries took advantage of the market niche left by Cuba and their increased production.
Ramiro Valdés scolded workers in Moa
Last May Ramiro Valdés, Vice President of the Castro government, went to the headquarters of Cubaníquel, the state nickel monopoly in Moa, Holguín, where he scolded workers and managers at the two Cuban nickel plants, the Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara and the Pedro Soto Alba, the latter operated by the regime on a 50/50 basis with the Canadian company Sherrit International Corporation. Ramiro Valdés chided them because they are producing less and less, with many problems and labor productivity at rock bottom; in the last three months alone their output dropped by 5,000 tons.
Sherrit International Corporation, based in Toronto, reported that in 2020 it suffered losses in Moa, and in December 2021 it revealed that Cuba its Cuban partner, the Castroist state, owed it $156 million. It has also complained of interruptions in the rail service and water supply for plant operation, and unplanned repairs. Although it has not stated it publicly, the Moa plant is the least efficient and productive of those that Sherrit manages in the world.
At said meeting with Ramiro Valdés, the issues of the factories' low productivity levels and multiple problems were broached, but the general manager of the industry, Leonardo Rosell, surprised no one by blaming Covid-19 and the "blockade."
He said nothing about the fact that due to technological backwardness, typical of communism, and inefficiency in general, nickel production costs in Cuba are among the highest on the planet, and too much petroleum is consumed per ton of nickel ore.
Of course, neither did Rosell state that the main cause of the low productivity there is the acute apathy and weariness among the mine workers, who, fed up with their miserable wages, hunger and the poor living conditions they suffer, are unwilling to make an effort for such an abusive employer.
The same is the case with workers at the country's thermoelectric plants, demoralized by constant blackouts due to "breakdowns" and "errors," now daily and unstoppable.
In the first decade of this century nickel was Cuba's top export, worth between 2 and 2.2 billion dollars a year. Now it is almost at the bottom of the list.
Still one of Cuba's four main export items, in 2018, before the pandemic, external sales of nickel accounted for 14.6% of the island's total exports, below tobacco, at 23.4%; and sugar, at 17.9%. In 2019, it dropped further and accounted for just 11% of overall Cuban exports. The main buyer of Cuban nickel is China, followed by Canada, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Hong Kong.
Che's same foolish formula for more efficiency and output
What can be done to boost productivity and increase nickel exports? The magic recipe was dictated by Ramiro Valdés: "strengthen links with the universities and raise the quality of life of the human capital." He demanded "greater commitment and responsibility from the workers" and, obviously, also blamed the "blockade" as the main reason for the low productivity.
In other words, the "historic" commander proposed the same misguided (idiotic, actually) formulas cited 60 years ago by the then-Minister of Industry, surname Guevara, which fit Albert Einstein's definition of insanity: "doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, is a symptom."
Conclusion: if Cuba had not been "liberated from capitalism" by the Castro brothers, "Che" Guevara, and Ramiro Valdés himself, today it would still be among the largest nickel producers in the world, earning billions of dollars with its nickel exports and, most probably, a manufacturer of nickel-based technological parts, pieces and components for the most sophisticated cutting-edge industries around the world.
But Cuba was "liberated," and now Moa produces less and less.