Commodities rally coming to an end: analysts

But prices fell in the past week as traders feared China’s stockpiling was tailing off.

Stockpiling is fraught with risk, especially when borrowed money is used to buy goods when there is no demand, Shanghai-based economist Andy Xie (謝國忠) said.

“Last year people who stockpiled went out of business,” Xie said. “I know one distributor who stockpiled 6 million tonnes of steel and went bust when it dropped by more than half.”