South Korea’s state-run procurement agency plans to buy 127,266 tonnes of industrial metals next year, spending almost $668 million on the purchases, 20% more than it spent this year, Reuters reported. The Public Procurement Service (PPS), which manages South Korea’s strategic reserves of metals, will focus on buying aluminium, copper and tin, Soon-Jae Yoo, deputy director of PPS’s commodity stockpile division, said at a seminar in London.
PPS plans next year to buy 74,000 tonnes of aluminium, 32,100 tonnes of copper, 2,274 tonnes of lead, 14,998 tonnes of zinc, 2,200 tonnes of tin and 1,694 tonnes of nickel, Yoo said. This year, it bought 123,200 tonnes of industrial metals at a cost of around $555.2 million, including the same volume of 2,200 tonnes of tin valued at $52.7 million.
Yoo also said PPS would list a 1,100 tonne copper commodity exchange-traded fund worth around $10 million on South Korea’s stock exchange on 17 December. Yoo said the EFT would eventually expand to other metals including aluminium and tin.
The PPS is gradually building its stocks of tin, by purchasing more metal than it releases to small and medium-sized enterprises each year. By the end of 2013 it expects to be close to its target of 75 days’ supply or 3,418 tonnes.
