ThinkCivics News
An educated citizenry is a vital requisite
for our survival as a free people.
Join ThinkCivics+
  • Culture & Society
  • Economy
  • Health
  • US News
  • Faith
  • Science & Tech
  • World News
No Result
View All Result
ThinkCivics News
  • Culture & Society
  • Economy
  • Health
  • US News
  • Faith
  • Science & Tech
  • World News
Join ThinkCivics+
No Result
View All Result
ThinkCivics News
Join TC+
Home World News

China’s Commodity Stockpiles Remain A Complete Mystery

ThinkCivics Newswire by ThinkCivics Newswire
August 8, 2021
in World News
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
0
China’s Commodity Stockpiles Remain A Complete Mystery

China has been trying to cool surging commodity prices by releasing inventory from its strategic reserves. The higher prices of oil, coal and metals have raised manufacturing costs, slowed down factory activity growth, and increased inflation in the world’s largest commodity consumer.  Every week since April this year, Chinese authorities have announced measures to control the price of many commodities, including energy and metals.

With all those auctions and reported releases of crude and coal from China’s strategic reserves, the market is dying to know how much the world’s top consumer has secretly stockpiled in recent years.

China is not forthcoming in reporting strategic reserves of anything, including crude oil. So, in most cases, analysts are playing a game of guesstimates, calculations, and conclusions from past behavior to try to measure Chinese stockpiles of strategic commodities, such as crude oil, coal, copper, zinc, and cobalt.

Knowing how much crude oil and metals China may have stashed could be particularly useful for commodity market analysts and traders.

Some of them have made estimates.

According to consultancy Energy Aspects, China is forecast to have 220 million barrels of crude oil in its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR), covering 15 days of China’s crude demand. Total crude stockpiles, including commercial inventories, are enough to cover 60 days of Chinese oil demand, Energy Aspects analyst Liu Yuntao told Reuters. 

That’s lower than the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) recommendation, which calls for all members to hold a minimum of 90 days of crude reserves. But China is not a member of the IEA.

For metals, Chinese strategic reserves are seen at 1.5 million to 2 million tons of copper, 800,000-900,000 tons of aluminum, and 250,000-400,000 tons of zinc, according to analysts quoted by Reuters. China is also thought to have around 7,000 tons of cobalt, a key metal used in battery manufacturing.

Since China rarely reports any commodity inventories, the market is often left guessing how Chinese crude oil imports—and import of key metals such as copper or iron ore—will trend in the coming months.

More than how much of each commodity China holds, the market is looking at how Chinese authorities have been managing these commodities this year amid a rally in commodity prices.

China has been tapping into coal reserves to prevent shortages as coal prices soar on tight supplies. The surging price of coal is affecting the downstream sector and the real economy, according to the Chinese state planning body.

China has also reportedly released more than 20 million barrels of crude oil from its strategic reserve in a move designed to curb the recent oil price rally. China’s crude oil imports began to cool as prices rallied. Now, its crude released from the strategic reserve could weaken Chinese imports further.

In addition, China has been releasing metals stocks from reserves to pull down rallying prices that raise manufacturing costs. 

Analysts see this attempt at commodity price management as effective only in the short term.

“Recent steps by Chinese authorities have succeeded in skimming some froth off commodity prices,” Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian Economics at HSBC, told Reuters.

“Fundamentally, however, prices for raw materials are driven by global supply and demand, which Chinese officials can only influence indirectly,” Neumann added.

China is also showing signs of a slowdown in demand for metals, which could drag down copper and iron ore prices for the rest of the year after a blistering rally in the first half. Chinese factory activity growth slowed down to the smallest in 15 months in July, and imports of copper and iron ore are also slowing down amid surging prices and government-planned curbs in China’s steel manufacturing.

Demand across most commodities in China is expected to slow down in the second half of 2021, Wood Mackenzie said in a new monthly China Economic Focus report last week.

“China’s economy is expected to slow down in H2 2021. Slower export growth, rising commodity prices, lackluster infrastructure investment, and expiring subsidies will all drag down the country’s GDP growth. As a result, we should see a deceleration of commodities demand in China,” Wood Mackenzie senior economist Yanting Zhou said.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

This article was originally published by Oil Price. Read the original article.

ThinkCivics Newswire

ThinkCivics researches, examines, and reports on issues that matter most. We deliver explanative, fearless, and insightful analysis for public consumption.

thinkcivics.com
Tags: Chinacommodities

Related Posts

Analysts: Risk of Chinese invasion of Taiwan may be increasing

Analysts: Risk of Chinese invasion of Taiwan may be increasing

May 18, 2022
Sweden Declares NATO Membership Bid Hours After Neighboring Finland

Sweden Declares NATO Membership Bid Hours After Neighboring Finland

May 15, 2022

Reports: Secret Recording Says Putin Seriously Ill With Blood Cancer, ‘Coup’ Underway

May 14, 2022

Vladimir Putin ‘will undergo cancer operation in the near future’ and is set to ‘hand over power to hardline ex KGB chief while he is incapacitated’, insider claims

April 30, 2022
Load More
Next Post
Joe Scarborough Calls People Who Side With Florida Gov. DeSantis ‘Slack-Jawed Yokels’

Joe Scarborough Calls People Who Side With Florida Gov. DeSantis ‘Slack-Jawed Yokels’

Mandatory Vaccine Announcement Coming For All Active-Duty Military

Mandatory Vaccine Announcement Coming For All Active-Duty Military

Collapse accelerates: Taliban seize three more major cities — in a single day

Collapse accelerates: Taliban seize three more major cities -- in a single day

TODAY'S TOP STORIES

  • FBI Agent at Sussmann Trial Just Dropped a Bomb About an Ongoing Investigation

    FBI Agent at Sussmann Trial Just Dropped a Bomb About an Ongoing Investigation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • BREAKING: State Farm Exec Apologizes to Angry Agents, Says ‘We Made a Mistake With Our Involvement’ With GenderCool

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Reporter Shuts Down Blue Checkmark Leftist ‘Hack’ Distorting His Coverage of Texas School Shooting

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Punks Attempt Another Smash and Grab, Pick Jewelry Store Where Employees Were Itching For A Fight

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Bill Maher Notices Something Odd About These Transgender Kids

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Handwritten Notes From 2017 Show FBI Agents Mislead DOJ On The Trump-Russia Investigation

by The Federalist
May 19, 2022
0
Handwritten Notes From 2017 Show FBI Agents Mislead DOJ On The Trump-Russia Investigation
National Security

Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is currently on trial for lying to the FBI about his role in pushing...

Read more

Jankowicz Got The Boot, But Biden’s ‘Ministry Of Truth’ Hired Replacements Are WORST

by ThinkCivics Newswire
May 19, 2022
0
Jankowicz Got The Boot, But Biden’s ‘Ministry Of Truth’ Hired Replacements Are WORST
National Security

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hired the co-author of the PATRIOT Act, arguably the harshest crackdown on civil liberties...

Read more

MSNBC Guests Want GOP Labeled ‘Domestic Terror Party,’ Jail Time For Having The Wrong Opinions

by The Political Insider
May 19, 2022
0
MSNBC Guests Want GOP Labeled ‘Domestic Terror Party,’ Jail Time For Having The Wrong Opinions
National Security

We all know that Democrats and the left love to operate on the premise of “never let a good crisis...

Read more

Incredible Video: George W. Bush Accidentally Condemns ‘Unjustified and Brutal Invasion of Iraq’

by The Political Insider
May 19, 2022
0
Incredible Video: George W. Bush Accidentally Condemns ‘Unjustified and Brutal Invasion of Iraq’
National Security

George W. Bush committed a Freudian slip so brutal they may have to rename the phenomenon after him. The former...

Read more
Watch: Davos Elites Warn “Painful Global Transition” Should Not Be Resisted By Nation-States
Economy

Watch: Davos Elites Warn “Painful Global Transition” Should Not Be Resisted By Nation-States

by Zero Hedge
May 24, 2022
0

As World Economic Forum head Klaus Schwab proclaimed that “the future is built by us” at the opening of the...

Read more
This Year’s World Economic Forum in Davos Is as Disturbing as You’d Expect
Economy

This Year’s World Economic Forum in Davos Is as Disturbing as You’d Expect

by RedState
May 23, 2022
0

It’s the time of year again when thousands of the world’s most powerful and wealthy people gather in Davos, Switzerland...

Read more
Is Trump A Modern Day Nostradamus? Watch His Prediction Of What Would Happen If Biden Won
Economy

Is Trump A Modern Day Nostradamus? Watch His Prediction Of What Would Happen If Biden Won

by The Political Insider
May 23, 2022
0

President Trump is many things, to friend and foe alike. Is being a modern day Nostradamus among them? At least...

Read more
U.S. economy may outpace China’s this year for the first time in nearly 50 years
Economy

U.S. economy may outpace China’s this year for the first time in nearly 50 years

by Just the News
May 21, 2022
0

The growth of the U.S. economy is set to outpace that of China's for the first time in nearly five...

Read more
Facebook Twitter RSS

Brilliantly

SAFE!

thinkcivics.com

Content & Links

Verified by Sur.ly

2022

Recent News

  • To Fight Racial Injustice, the US Army Will Rename Nine Historic Bases
  • Witnesses: Police Refused to Enter School as Uvalde Shooter Rampaged, Subdued Parents Begging Them to Act
  • Mike Rowe Says Feds Revoked His Filming Permit, Received Call Claiming It Was Pulled For His ‘Personal Politics’

Category

  • Culture & Society
  • Economy
  • Editorials
  • Education
  • Elections
  • Energy
  • Environment
  • Faith
  • Health
  • Immigration
  • Military
  • National Security
  • Politics
  • Science & Tech
  • US News
  • Videos
  • World News

© 2022 ThinkCivics Media. All Rights Reserved.

  • Login
  • Sign Up
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
  • Store
  • Contact Us
  • Join
  • Contribute

© 2022 ThinkCivics Media. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

OR

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.