For example, the British Commodity Research Institute predicted in June 2004 +065438+ 10 that the global copper supply would exceed 65438+ million tons in 2005; At the annual meeting of London Metal Exchange (LME) held in mid-June, 2004, most major international investment banks also predicted that copper prices would be lowered in 2005 and the market would continue to be surplus. However, the reality is that international copper prices have risen against the market. In June 2005, it reached the highest record in the copper futures market in a hundred years, reaching 4 146.65 USD per ton. The "State Reserve Copper" incident occurred when the relevant institutions predicted that the international copper price would fall, but it actually continued to rise.
The announcement of State Reserve Copper Auction issued by State Material Reserve Bureau (hereinafter referred to as State Reserve Bureau) on June 9, 2005 stated that in order to alleviate the current tight domestic copper supply situation and meet domestic consumption demand, on June 6, 2005, the State Reserve Adjustment Center was entrusted by State Reserve Bureau to auction 20,000 tons of State Reserve Copper.
After that, within a short month, the State Reserve Bureau held four auctions in spot copper, and the starting price of each auction was high, which brought great impact to the market every time. Among them, the starting price of the third auction in Shanghai and Ningbo was 37 140 yuan per ton, but the transaction price of the first batch of 100 tons reached 38 120 yuan/ton, which was far from the auction price.
At the fourth auction in spot copper, the reserve price of 65,438+6,000 tons of copper was 80% of the total auction volume of 20,000 tons, which was comparable to the market price, and the participants complained bitterly. Although the State Reserve Bureau claims that the purpose of selling copper is to meet the domestic demand for copper and stabilize the price of copper, the market is more willing to believe that the State Reserve Bureau's move is to alleviate the pressure brought by its losses in the futures market.
Because from June 5438+065438+ 10/3, 2005, foreign sources disclosed that Liu, a trader of the State Reserve Bureau of China, shorted copper in the copper futures market at a price of more than US$ 3 100 per ton, and established a short position of about150,000 to 200,000 tons. These positions have been delivered.
However, since mid-September 2005, international funds have been pushing up the price of copper, forcing the State Reserve Bureau to empty, and the price of copper has increased by more than 600 US dollars per ton. The rising international copper price will undoubtedly cause huge losses to the State Reserve Bureau, so the State Reserve Bureau has to relieve the pressure and recover the losses by constantly selling domestic spot. At the end of 2005, Liu, chairman of China Banking Regulatory Commission, admitted that the State Reserve Bureau suffered heavy losses in this incident because it failed to effectively control market risks.