Sympathy strikes broke out at 15 other national ports, with that at Puerto Central in the main Chilean hub of San Antonio still ongoing.
The resulting chaos spread throughout many industries, which were unable to get shipments processed at the dockside.
The Chilean Finance Minister, Felipe Larrain, urged dockers to quickly resolve the problem, pointing out that jobs were in jeopardy.
At one stage, farmers had to cease harvesting crops because of a lack of means for exporting them.
The National Society of Agriculture and Fruit Producers calculates the cost to its members of between $80m and $100m, while the Export Manufacturers’ Association claims its members lost up to $14m daily. State-owned copper company, Codelco, which makes extensive use of Angamos, says its losses amounted to $500m.
Questions are now being asked about both the legality of the original strike, which appears to have been called without proper procedures being followed, and also that of copycat action.