Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.21-023605/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-21/china-to-add-cobalt-copper-in-boost-to-state-metal-reserves

China plans to add to its strategic reserves of key industrial metals this year, an effort to boost the resilience of critical minerals supply at time when energy-transition demand is increasing and geopolitical tensions are running high.

Cobalt, copper, nickel and lithium are among the metals the government plans to purchase, according to people familiar with the discussion. They asked not to be named as the conversations are not public. The National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, which manages the country’s official commodities stockpiles, has made price inquiries and sought to bid for some of these metals, the people said.

The National Development & Reform Commission — China’s top planning body, whose purview includes stockpiles — had signaled the plan in its report for the country’s annual parliament earlier this month, writing that the country would “move faster to fulfill the yearly task of stockpiling strategic goods.”