Looking at stockpiles doesn't tell you much about future demand. It just shows you what has happened and what is happening now. The trend if you like. The markets are usually forward looking and care more about what demand will be like in 3-6 months time. If you pay close scrutiny to global GDP & Chinese GDP forecasts, you can better estimate forward deman, price curves etc.
If you balance this with the supply side, you can with fair accuracy predict shortfalls and price rises.
If you're into KZL & zinc for example, you must read these reports thoroughly.
Also register for the Economist's Global Forecasting Service to view regular detailed updates about forward looking price/demand/supply stats under 'commodities' & hard.
And finally pay close attention to any news about Global GDP forecasts and updates. These will translate directly into more or less metal demand. E.g the IMF World Economic Outlook Update & again the IMF puts out fairly detailed and reliable GDP & other economic data about China - check the first report, page 3 for GDP data. 8.2% for 2012 & 8.8% for 2013. Good enough to keep metal demand up.
If you watch and visit all four sites often, you will get a good feel for when is a good time to buy & sell whatever metal or company. At the very least it will put in a 6-12 month time-frame of a market move rather than being too early or too late.
KZL Price at posting:
31.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
