Supply Chain Research

The Chinese government has reportedly announced plans to cut its strategic reserves of aluminum, copper and zinc due to rising prices and the knock-on impact on supply chain inflation. The release of reserves will be an unwelcome turn for Chile’s copper exporters whose shipments to China climbed 19.3% year over year in Q1’21 and by 1.4% compared to Q4’20. The challenge will be particularly pertinent for BHP which represented 35.4% of Chilean copper exports to China in Q1 and which saw growth of 53.7% year over year and by 7.2% versus Q4’20. Shipments linked directly to Anglo American me...