RE: Copper26 Jan 2019 10:00
The fact that stockpile are depleting, without a corresponding rise in the price of copper, indicates that some sort of government-sponsored activity is underway because while copper is a widely-used metal in construction, electrical grids and appliances, and vehicles, it is also a strategic metal with multiple military uses.
Other important metals, including nickel and aluminium, have also seen a steady decline in stockpiles since the U.S. v China trade war started earlier last year, but like copper there has not been a significant price reaction.
Macquarie Bank was the first to note the fall in metal exchange stocks without a price reaction, but it concluded that the metal had not been consumed, it had simply been shifted out of sight.