South Korea says could boost metal stockpiles

The South Korean agency that manages state stockpiles of commodities says it could ramp up its inventories of non-ferrous metals next year amid growing demand for such materials in churning out products like electric vehicles. The Public Procurement Service (PPS) has stockpiled raw materials for around 50 years, using them to help local companies in times of shortage or when prices spiral upwards.
"We can't confirm our plan next year, but think (non-ferrous metal stockpiles) will be higher than this year," Park Chun-sup, the newly-appointed administrator of the PPS, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. The agency typically keeps total non-ferrous and rare metal stockpiles at around 250,000 tonnes, with aluminium accounting for over half of that. Park added that companies involved in producing electric vehicles or other new technologies were helping to drive up appetite for metals.