Singapore 23/05/2016 - China’s import of unwrought copper and copper alloy rose 6.3 percent year-on-year but fell 24.5 percent month-on-month to 400,000 tonnes in April, according to final trade data released by the country’s General Administration of Customs on Saturday.
This took year-to-April imports to 1.71 million tonnes, which was up 27.1 percent from the same period last year.
Imports had been strong in the first quarter of the year due to arbitrage opportunities between Shanghai Futures Exchange and London Metal Exchange. Some had also reckoned there were opportunistic buying when copper was at low prices and restocking ahead of the peak demand season of April-May.
While China’s copper imports had fallen month-on-month in April, imports remained strong on a seasonal basis and should stay so in the coming months, ANZ Research said earlier this month when preliminary Chinese trade data was released.
China’s export of unwrought copper and copper alloy rose 37.2 percent year-on-year to 32,411 tonnes in April. But year-to April exports fell 9.1 percent to 78,213 tonnes.
Chinese copper smelters and large position holders in Shanghai's bonded warehouses had delivered metal into London Metal Exchange-registered warehouses in Southeast Asia since late-March as warehouses reportedly offer incentives on some brands to attract metal.
Meanwhile, Chinese copper scrap imports slipped 12.2 percent year-on-year to 270,000 tonnes in April, which took year-to-date imports to 1.01 million tonnes. This is down seven percent from the same period last year.
China's copper ore and concentrate imports decreased eight percent year-on-year to 1.26 million tonnes in April. Imports rose 30.8 percent year-on-year to 5.27 million tonnes in the first four months of the year.