China has bought 235,000 tonnes of copper, 30 tonnes of indium and 5,000 tonnes of titanium, Caijing magazine quoted an official of National Development and Reform Commission as saying.

But China would not continue purchases. "State purchases for reserves will not continue under current market conditions," Yu Dongming at the NDRC's metallurgical deparment told a conference.

It is the first public confirmation of the NDRC's State Reserves Bureau's secretive purchases of copper for reserves.

The SRB is widely known to have bought 590,000 tonnes of primary aluminium and 159,000 tonnes of refined zinc from Chinese smelters since December last year.