Rare earth, tungsten, tin or will become a new type of strategic metal reserves

According to Reuters, Hong Kong, June 20, according to sources familiar with the two plans, China is studying the adjustment of its strategic metal reserve plan, which may include metals such as rare earths, tungsten, indium, molybdenum and tin. China has a strategic reserve of copper and oil. A source who declined to be named said that the National Development and Reform Commission has asked state-owned research institutions to consider whether other metals should be included. The source, who is directly aware of the plan, said that the National Development and Reform Commission proposed in the meeting in Beijing last month that China should reserve strategic commodities when the prices of large commodities fell. The second source said that the National Development and Reform Commission will study the establishment of metal stocks such as rare earths, tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum and tin, which are already major producers in China. According to the plan, China's copper inventory target is 2 million tons, but it is not clear whether the government will raise inventory targets in the near future. In terms of crude oil, China is expected to complete the strategic storage of 170 million barrels in the second phase of this year. Analysts said that China's strategic oil storage may increase by about 40 million barrels in the first five months of this year, and it is expected to increase by another 85 million to 110 million barrels in the second half of the year. The copper stocks of the National Materials Reserve Bureau may currently be between 1.4 million and 1.6 million tons. This data is estimated by sources related to the government because the official does not publish this data. From January to April, the non-ferrous metals industry realized a profit of 52.4 billion yuan . The data released by the National Development and Reform Commission on June 20 showed that in the first four months of this year, the non-ferrous metals industry realized a profit of 52.4 billion yuan, down 11.2% year-on-year. From January to May, the output of ten non-ferrous metals in the country was 14.26 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%, and the growth rate slowed down by 3.7 percentage points year-on-year. Among them, except for the output of electrolytic aluminum increased by 10.5% and the growth rate accelerated by 6.5 percentage points, although the output of copper and alumina increased to a certain extent, the growth rate slowed down; the output of lead and zinc decreased. In May, the price of non-ferrous metals showed a downward trend. The output of ten non-ferrous metals in the country increased by 6.6% year-on-year, and the growth rate accelerated by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year. The price of non-ferrous metals in the international market has fallen. The prices of non-ferrous metals such as aluminum and zinc in the international market are falling. Aluminum and zinc prices hit a new low of about two years and five months respectively. Because not only the European debt crisis continues to ferment, China's purchases are shrinking, and the market demand outlook is uncertain. High global stocks are also one of the reasons for the weak price. In the three-month futures of the London Metal Exchange (LME), aluminum ingots fell $4 from June 18 to $1,929 per tonne. It was 9% lower than in early May. Zinc ingots for steel plating processing were close to $1,900 per ton as of the 18th. The lead ingots for automotive batteries are also almost at the same level, which are far below the $2,000 of the break-even point of the smelting plant. Copper ingots used in electronic components and so on are currently around $7,500 per ton, which is at a low level at the beginning of the year. Shinko Naomura, president of Market Risk Advisory, a Japanese market risk consultancy, said that although the fiscal austerity group won the second general election in Greece, "the European debt crisis has not disappeared, and concerns about market demand prospects have caused non-ferrous metals to be sold." There is a view that the slowdown in exports of products to Europe has led to a decline in the purchases of China, the world's largest consumer of non-ferrous metals. The aluminum ingots in the warehouses designated by the London Metal Exchange were about 4.85 million tons as of June 18, the highest level in history. The zinc ingot was about 960,000 tons, an increase of 17% from the beginning of the year. In addition to electronic components, non-ferrous metals are also widely used in automotive and building materials, and their market trends have become the vane of economic development. Mitsubishi UFJ Research & Consulting, a researcher at the Mitsubishi UFJ Research & Consulting Co., believes that "the price decline indicates that the global economy will further slow down in the second half of the year."