China, the leading global consumer and producer of metals, will release additional shipments of government reserves of copper, aluminum and zinc to the market to stabilize commodity prices and thus ease pressure on manufacturing plants, the country's top economic designer said Thursday.
The State Development and Reform Committee of the People's Republic of China intends to work together with other departments to release several batches of non-ferrous metals to the market in accordance with fluctuations in market prices, said the spokesman of the said committee Meng Wei.
On the eve of the State Department of Food and Material Reserves of the country announced its readiness to release consignments of copper, aluminum and zinc from the state reserves through public auction.
According to Meng Wei, this issue of state reserves is mainly targeted at enterprises for the processing and production of non-ferrous metals, and small and medium-sized enterprises will be provided with relatively more favorable conditions for participating in public auctions.
The committee has taken various actions to moderate market speculation and curb the upward trend in commodity prices, Meng Wei said, recalling that these measures have already yielded preliminary results - there has been a decline in prices for commodities such as iron ore, steel and copper.
