Economic Indicators

China July copper imports decline on weak demand; Jan-July up

2024.08.07 01:21

By Siyi Liu and Colleen Howe

BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s unwrought imports slid in July from a year earlier, customs data showed on Wednesday, amid subdued demand and high stocks of the metal.

Imports of unwrought copper and products were 438,000 metric tons last month, down 2.9% from 451,159 tons a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

The data includes anode, refined, alloy and semi-finished copper products.

The lower imports come amid stubbornly weak demand in the world’s top consumer of the metal used in power and construction sectors.

Amid a protracted property crisis, China’s manufacturing activity slipped to a five-month low in July, with retail sales, capital market services and real estate service industries all shrinking.

State-backed research house Antaike expects China’s refined copper consumption growth to slow down to about 2.5% this year, from 5.3% in 2023.

Lacklustre demand and strong domestic production resulted in a higher-than-usual rise in inventories this year.

Deliverable copper stocks in the warehouses of Shanghai Futures Exchange have been elevated at around 300,000 tons since April, a four-year high.

For the first seven months of the year, copper imports were up 5.4% at 3.2 million tons, the data showed.

The year-to-date increase was mainly because of more buying earlier this year when participants held an optimistic view on China demand, said He Tianyu, a Shanghai-based copper analyst at commodity research house CRU.

Copper prices have dropped about 20% since an all-time peak hit in late May. The price falls triggered some more buying, with traders seeing more opportunities to import.

Imports are likely to grow as a result of falling prices and demand recovery, He said.

The Yangshan copper premium, a closely watched indicator of China’s spot import appetite, dropped into negative territory in May and June but rallied last month and hit a more than four-month high of $48 per ton this week.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Employees work at a copper smelter in Yantai, Shandong province, China April 26, 2023. REUTERS/Siyi Liu/File Photo

Amid global supply shortages of mined copper, imports of copper concentrate were 2.17 million tons for July, their lowest since July last year, but still up 9.6% from a low base of 1.98 million tons imported then, customs data showed.

Copper concentrate imports totalled 16.06 million tons for the first seven months, up 4.5% from a year earlier.



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