China’s copper imports in July fell 1.0% from June, declining for a fourth straight month, customs data showed on Saturday, as high prices, the release of state reserves and increased scrap metal inflows kept buying interest at bay.
Imports of unwrought copper and copper products into China, the world’s biggest copper consumer, were 424,280.3 tonnes last month, the General Administration of Customs said. That was down from 428,437.5 tonnes in June and well below the record high of 762,211 tonnes in July 2020.
Activity in China’s copper-intensive manufacturing and construction sectors expanded at a slower pace in July amid high raw material costs and extreme weather. The government also sold off 50,000 tonnes of copper from state reserves in a bid to cool prices.
However, Shanghai copper prices SCFcv1 rose more than London prices CMCU3 last month, partially opening an arbitrage window for cheaper overseas metal and causing a 5% drawdown on refined copper inventories in bonded warehouses SMM-CUR-BON.
State-backed research house Antaike said on Thursday it expects China’s refined copper imports to return to near 2019 levels in 2021 after bumper inflows last year.
A new import regime allowing unlimited entry of very high-grade scrap metal will see China bring in an additional 400,000-500,000 tonnes of copper scrap on a metal content basis this year, it added.
Consultancy Roskill says bigger scrap purchases are displacing China’s imports of other forms of copper.
Imports of copper concentrate, or partially processed copper ore, were 1.887 million tonnes in July. That was up 13.0% from 1.671 million tonnes in June and up 5.1% from 1.795 million tonnes a year earlier.
Exports of unwrought aluminium and products last month rose 3.2% from June to 469,030.6 tonnes. That was also up 25.6% from a year earlier.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Gabriel Crossley and Tom Daly; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)