BEIJING: China’s copper imports rebounded 8.7% in June, bucking a two-month fall, although imports to date this year are below last year’s levels amid a global transfer of copper inventories to the United States.
Unwrought copper and copper product imports hit 464,000 metric tonnes in June, up from 427,000 in May and 438,000 in April, according to customs data released on Monday.
Imports for the category, which includes anode, refined, alloy and semi-finished copper products, are down 5% cumulatively across the first half compared to a year earlier.
Global copper stocks have been reshuffled this year as traders moved inventories to the United States in anticipationof copper tariffs first flagged in February, with an August 1 start date set last week.
Copper prices rangebound amid US trade talks, 50% metal tariff
Copper concentrate, a feedstock for China’s enormous smelter sector, fell slightly to 2.35 million tonnes in June, from 2.4million tonnes the month before, but was roughly level with the year-earlier figure of 2.31 million.
New smelters opening this year are expected to keep up demand for concentrate in a market hit by shortages of the feedstock.
China exported 489,000 tonnes of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products, including primary, alloy and semi-finished aluminium products, in June, down from May’s 547,000 tonnes.
American Dollar Exchange Rate