why CYM is a Billion $ company in the making, page-12

Actually if China expects the copper price to fall it makes perfect sense to release their copper reserves now. This would allow them to drop the price in the current high demand scenario and buy back when the price is even lower.

Its quite a gamble though.... Yes Evergrande could cause a big slow down in construction in China which would put the brakes on demand, and the credit situation could also spill over to the rest of the Chinese and even the world economy which would push demand even lower.

But long term the electrification of nearly everything will mean much, much higher demand.... So if that crisis doesn't happen or even if it happens a few years from now, they will be unlikely to buy back at a better price.

But the Chinese economy is in hot water at the moment. I think they are pulling out all the tricks to keep up appearances. They are making some terrible decisions for the long term and shooting themselves in the foot (look at coal, Iron Ore and steel production as an example). It appears Xi Jinping has overestimated his power in pushing around commodities and other countries and is now in panic mode.

I wouldn't be surprised we are actually headed for significant crisis starting in China but spreading globally. I do believe it will have a silver lining long term. The first signals of countries taking back control of production of critical materials and becoming less dependent on China are everywhere. This is both economically and strategically good news... certainly also for copper produced in a stable western country.