China stockpiler's copper buy at least 200,000 T in 2015: sources
(Reuters)
Updated: 2015-01-30 14:33
China's stockpiler plans to buy about 200,000 tonnes of refined copper in 2015 from the international market and may more than double the amount if global prices are low, three industry sources said. The State Reserves Bureau (SRB) has set a rare "flexible" buying plan in 2015 after having bought more copper than it had planned in 2014 due to low prices, the sources said, but declined to be named due to the sensitive nature of the issue.
"The SRB has set a copper buying plan for 2015. The first batch is 200,000 tonnes," said a source. "The format of the SRB buying copper in 2015 should be similar to last year." The stockpiler is estimated to have placed at least two batches of orders in 2014 for imports of anywhere between 400,000 and 700,000 tonnes of refined copper cathode, compared to the initial plan about 300,000 tonnes. The delivery would continue through the first quarter of 2015.
Some 50,000 tonnes of copper were set to go into a SRB's warehouse in January, according to a warehousing source.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the powerful economic planner that controls the stockpiler, did not respond to requests for comment.
ATTRACTIVE PRICES Copper hit a 5-1/2-year low this week, trading at $5,408.5 a tonne on Thursday. The price dropped about 14 percent last year.
The initial 2015 plan was set at about 200,000-250,000 tonnes and the delivery would be in the first half of the year mostly, two of the sources said.
Those shipments would be used to complete an ongoing program to build copper stocks to 2 million tonnes by end-2015, one of the sources said.
But the stockpiler wanted to buy more to take advantage of low prices and those extra purchases could be anywhere between 300,000 and 500,000 tonnes, with prices being targeted below $5,000 a tonne, the source added. "One thing we are sure is that the SRB has secured the money for the additional tonnages," the source said.
That 300,000-500,000 tonnes would make the stockpiler's buying to reach 500,000-700,000 tonnes this year.
Full-year buying of the State Reserves Bureau should not be lower than 500,000 tonnes of copper in 2015 as prices were low, another source said.
The stockpiler may also continue stock rotations in 2015 after having set a plan to sell about 200,000 tonnes of old copper stocks to local firms in 2014, the sources said
