Non-ferrous metal futures on a roll

Futures contracts of non-ferrous metals traded on the Shanghai Future Exchange (SHFE) soared yesterday on reports that China is building up a copper stockpile for the economic stimulus plan.

After hitting the exchange-imposed daily limit of 5 percent in Shanghai on Wednesday, the price of copper futures contracts surged another 2.39 percent yesterday. Contracts for aluminum edged up 0.77 percent, while zinc rose 1.72 percent.

Jiang Hai, analyst, Brilliant Futures Investment Study, said non-ferrous metal prices rose in the past few days on reports that the State Reserve Bureau (SRB) is building up its inventory of copper, aluminum and zinc in anticipation of strong demand.

Traders expected that the SRB's buying spree would help push up commodity prices in the futures markets.

Zhang Xiaohan, analyst, Essence Securities, said the SRB shopping list includes 700,000 tons of copper, which would increase China's copper inventory to about 1 million tons.

Copyright and Exemption Declaration :¢ÙAll articles, pictures and videos that are marked with "China Aluminum Network" on this website are copyright and belong to China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn). When transshipment, any media, website or individual must list the source from "China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn)". We seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÚArticles that marked as copy from others are for transferring more information to readers, do not represent or endorse their opinions or accuracy and reliability. When other media, website or individuals copy from our website, must keep the source. Anyone that changes the articles' sources will hold the responsibilities for copyright and law problems. We also seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÛIf any articles copied by our website concern the copyright and other problems, please contact us within one week.