Monday, June 30, 2008

Apparently China is where commodities hoarding is happening

according to Wall Street Examiner. Andy Bebut says
"some time ago I’ve indicated that apparently China is building a multi-year stockpile of various commodities to diversify its trade surplus. Anything that can be practically stored (as metals, grains) is removed from the world markets and stored. Obviously it creates gigantic price distortions.
This is why I’m watching China, at some point I expect the consumption of industrial metals by China to slowdown dramatically as they shift from imports to enormous domestic stockpiles. In fact I think China can easily continue to grow for some time without importing any industrial metal at all. Zero."
That is a bold statement. It would make sense in that the Chinese government would want to invest in something besides US Treasuries. On the other hand, driving up the prices by itself would cost the Chinese some non-trivial amount. Of course, they stand to lose a lot once they stop buying Treasuries, as the value of their holdings fall when prices go up. Interesting...

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