Over the years I've joked that China might be returning to the bronze age or considering a monetary 'copper standard' when their copper imports couldn't be explained by current usage.
The government/Communist party are not shy about hoarding storable commodities e.g. January's "China and Food Prices: "One reason for rising food prices? Chinese hoarding"" and the recent order from the State Council for the release of 37 tonnes from the National Pork Reserve for the month of September.
First up, the headline story from Reuters via Mining.com, September 7:
China imported 26% more copper in August than a year earlier, customs data on Wednesday showed, as lowered prices and stocks amid power rationing enhanced the appetite for foreign supply.
Unwrought copper and copper product imports into China – including anode, refined, alloy and semi-finished copper products – totalled 498,188.60 tonnes in August. That compared with the year-earlier volume of 394,017.10 tonnes, a two-year low.
The annual increase was attributed to cheaper prices in July and August that sparked buying interests among producers.
Three-month copper prices on the London Metal Exchange closed at $7,801.50 a tonne on the last trading day of August, up 8.5% from a 20-month low hit on July 15 but still down 19.7% from the beginning of this year.
“Lower copper prices in July and August sparked buying activities. Also, the open arbitrage between Shanghai and London led to more cargos inflow,” said He Tianyu, a copper analyst at CRU Group....
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And to dispel the Bronze Age notion, Chinese speculators are dumping the metal with which copper is alloyed, also Reuters via Mining.com September 7:
Column: Chinese speculators crush tin, wiping out two-year rally
Industrial metals have flipped from boom to bust in the space of six months as the market focus shifts from supply-chain problems to the darkening demand outlook.
None, however, has imploded quite as spectacularly as tin, the London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month price collapsing from an all-time peak of $51,000 per tonne in March to a current $20,700....
....MUCH MORE
China is going to be richly rewarded by President Biden's climate spending so that might be the reason for the growing stockpile but they tried that after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ended up paying from $4.40 to $5.00 before the market turned and hit its summer low of $3.13.
One thing is for sure, they don't need the copper to wire new apartment buildings:"China tears down tower blocks in effort to boost stalling economy" (plus Keynes and copper)
Front futures $3.5745 last.
