South Korea’s Public Procurement Service (PPS) will raise its purchases of aluminium, zinc, tin and nickel in 2010, but buy less copper and lead than in 2009, Reuters reported.
Inventories of the six LME metals, now at around 48 days of import demand, would rise to 53 days by the end of 2010, it said in a statement on 28 December. The agency is planning to expand base metal inventories to equivalent to 60 days worth of import demand by 2012.
Refined tin purchases in 2010 are budgeted at 1,910 tonnes, marginally higher than the 1,900 tonnes acquired in 2009. The agency’s tin inventory, which is used to manage the supply chain to small and medium-sized manufacturing companies, stood at 2,013 tonnes on 16 November, and is due to rise to 2,300 tonnes by the end of 2010.
