China releases 150,000 tonnes of national metal reserves

China’s state reserves authority on Wednesday, released 150,000 tonnes of copper, aluminum and zinc from the national reserves.

This it said, was to alleviate burdens on businesses over rising raw material costs.

The National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, said it would step up monitoring of commodity prices and organise follow-up releases of national reserves.

This was the third batch of releases to the market. Previously, China had released a total of 270,000 tonnes of copper, aluminum and zinc to maintain market order.

Since the beginning of 2022, bulk commodity prices had surged due to factors including, the overseas spreading of COVID-19 and the imbalances of supply and demand, causing pressures on medium and small firms.

Earlier, official data showed China’s producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, expanded by 9 per cent year on year in July, slightly higher than the 8.8 per cent growth in June.

Sharp price hikes in crude oil and coal lifted year-on-year PPI growth in July.

However, month-on-month data showed that government policies to stabilise commodity prices took effect, with mild price decline, seen in industries like steel and non-ferrous metals, the National Bureau of Statistics said.