China's State Reserve Bureau to boost copper purchases in 2015

BEIJING (Scrap Monster):  The Chinese State Reserves Bureau (SRB) said it has rolled out a flexible plan to buy out copper during 2015.

The stockpiler has announced initial plans to buy nearly 200,000 tons of refined copper from international market during the year. However, the purchases may be doubled if global prices decline further. The copper prices had declined nearly 14% during 2014. The downtrend has continued in 2015 with copper prices hitting 5.5 year lows of $5,408.5 per tonne on Thursday.

The SRB had purchased more copper than announced earlier in 2014, to take advantage of the falling prices. According to the initial plan, SRB was to purchase 300,000 tons of refined copper cathode during 20141. However, the total orders placed by the agency ranged between 300,000 tons and 700,000 tons, the deliveries of which is expected to extend through Q1 2015. Around 50,000 tons of refined copper were shipped to SRB warehouses during January this year, as per sources. The state agency stated that the fundamental strategy for 2015 remains the same as of 2014.

SRB intends to raise the copper stocks to 2 million tonnes by end-2015. Although initial plans are to purchase 200,000 tons, the actual purchases for the entire year are likely to be in the range between 500,000 tonnes to 700,000 tonnes. Sources indicate that SRB may ramp up purchases in the event of copper prices falling below $5,000 per tonne.

Meantime, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which controls SRB, declined to comment on the purchase plan.