METALS DATA - China's copper imports, ali exports slip month-on-month in April

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Vivian Teovivian.teo@fastmarkets.comJoint News Editor - Asia

Singapore 09/05/2016 - China’s imports of unwrought copper and copper products and copper concentrates fell on a month-on-month basis in April, according to preliminary data published by the country’s General Administration of Customs on Sunday.

Imports of unwrought copper and copper products totalled 450,000 tonnes in April, down 21.8 percent from March.

This took imports to 1.88 million tonnes in January-April, up 23.1 percent year-on-year.

Imports in the first quarter had been strong due to to earlier arbitrage opportunities between Shanghai Futures Exchange and London Metal Exchange, opportunistic buying when copper was at low prices and restocking ahead of the peak demand season of April-May.

But market participants had expected imports to slow after March as the arb opportunity has closed since late-January, evident from six consecutive weeks of declines in SHFE copper inventory data between March 21 and April 29.

The customs did not provide separate import figures for unwrought copper and copper products.

Chinese copper ore and concentrate imports fell eight percent month-on-month to 1.26 million tonnes in April, taking year-to-date imports to 5.27 million tonnes, up 30.8 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, China’s unwrought aluminium and aluminium product exports dipped 4.8 percent month-on-month to 400,000 tonnes in April.

This took exports to 1.48 million tonnes in the first four months of the year, which was down 10.2 percent compared to the same period last year.

The customs did not provide separate export figures for unwrought aluminium and aluminium products.



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