Bizarre price action. Complete lack of tranparency in the...

Bizarre price action. Complete lack of tranparency in the market...

https://customers.reuters.com/community/newsletters/metals/IM_Apr_30_2012.pdf

China to deliver copper to LME-Jiangxi Copper unit
HONG KONG, April 30 (Reuters) - Large Chinese copper smelters
and trading firms have agreed to deliver refined copper cathodes
to the London Metal Exchange in the coming two months
in an effort to boost the availability of copper in the global market,
Jiangxi Copper International Trading Co Ltd said.
The joint action means thousands of tonnes of refined copper
will likely be shipped to LME warehouses, helping to ease tightness
in copper stocks, which has driven spot prices to a steep
premium over prices further out.
This causes losses for Chinese smelters that receive regular
term imports of raw material concentrate priced on nearby LME
months, and then sell refined copper later. It also dampens demand
by discouraging end-users from buying spot copper.
In a statement received by Reuters late Sunday, Jiangxi Copper
International, a subsidiary of China's top producer Jiangxi Copper
Company Ltd , said the smelters included members of China
Smelters Purchase Team (CSPT) and Xiangguang Copper Co
Ltd.

CSPT members and Xiangguang make up the top ten copper
producers in China and produce the bulk of the country's refined
copper.
Firms participating in the joint action would export "enough"
refined copper to improve availability in the domestic and international
markets, the statement said. No figure was cited.
"Chinese trading companies and main smelters will jointly export
big amounts of copper in the next 2 months. The copper
will be seen in LME warehouses in Asia," a trade manager at
Jiangxi Copper International told Reuters late Sunday, without
providing the amount.
The move comes as copper in bonded warehouses in China
has soared due to weak domestic demand and an increase in
the use of copper as a financing tool for other markets.
The statement said copper in bonded warehouses had reached
a record high, but did not give a figure.
At the same time, copper in LME-registered warehouses fell to
its lowest level since 2008 on Friday at just over 250,000 tonnes.
The benchmark cash-to-three-months backwardation - the premium
for cash copper against three-month delivery on the
world's biggest metal marketplace - hit its highest since August
2008 on Friday at $149 per tonne.
China was estimated to have near-record commercial stocks of
over one million tonnes of refined copper in late March. A trading
manager at a large Chinese smelter estimated the stocks at
about 1.4 million tonnes last week, excluding the stockpile of the
State Reserves Bureau.
High cash LME prices have already prompted owners of
bonded copper stocks in Shanghai to re-export some stocks in
April.