THE government said yesterday it will release national reserves of some base metals over the near term, as the world’s top metals consumer tries to stabilize the price of critical commodities.

The notice came as China aims to cool the metals sector, which has seen prices surge this year fueled by a post-pandemic economic recovery, ample global liquidity and pockets of speculative buying.

The National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration said in a statement on its website that it will release reserves including copper, aluminum and zinc in batches for nonferrous processing and manufacturing firms via public bidding.

Both copper contracts on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) and the London Metal Exchange hit record highs in May, having risen more than 60 percent since March last year when the pandemic hit global markets.

ShFE aluminum touched its highest since 2010 in May, while zinc jumped to its highest since 2007 in the same month.

Chinese regulators have stepped up efforts to cool commodity prices recently, saying they will closely monitor market movements.

“The Chinese authorities are trying to help support the margins at its manufacturing industry as they have found it hard to transfer these costs to the end-users,” said commodities broker Anna Stablum at Marex Spectron.

The statement by the administration did not mention details of the auction process and which manufacturers will be allowed to bid.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has ordered State enterprises to control risks and limit their exposure to overseas commodities markets, Bloomberg News quoted sources as saying yesterday. The companies have been asked to report their futures positions for the regulator to review, said the report.(SD-Agencies)