Copper stockpile to be quietly reduced

China's State Reserve Bureau may be quietly trying to unload some of its older stocks to cut its overall inventory, the South China Morning Post reported, citing industry sources. The sources said the bureau had offered 62,400 tonnes from stock built up in the 1970s and 1980s. The strategy is a departure from the bureau's approach last year when it staged high-profile copper auctions in an effort to push down prices and increase supply after it built a large overseas short position amid speculation it did not have enough copper for delivery, driving world copper prices to a record high of US$8,800 a tonne in May from less than US$4,000 in November last year. Industry officials and analysts in China said the bureau had settled its liability for the short position – which might have been as large as 300,000 tonnes – with overseas brokers and was reviewing its copper stocks.