BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Wednesday it would accelerate the annual stockpiling of strategic fuels, food and other commodities.
In a report on Wednesday, China’s state planner said it would steadily advance the construction of storage facilities for grain, petroleum and other commodities.
“We will move faster to fulfil the yearly task of stockpiling strategic goods as we work to expand the scale of reserves,” the report said.
The world’s largest consumer of raw materials, China is very secretive about the size and extent of its vast network of reserves, although analysts estimate they contain hundreds of millions of tons of metals, grains, meat and crude oil.
China’s strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) was estimated at 290 million barrels last July, although private estimates vary widely and China tightly guards information about the subject.
The planner also said it would refine the planning systems for the exploration, production and storage of strategic minerals.
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson and Colleen Howe in Beijing; Editing by Tom Hogue)
