Bloomberg reported that refined copper imports by China advanced 12% in February from a month earlier as demand improved and scrap supply fell.
The Beijing based customs office said that inbound shipments were 220,530 tonnes. That’s up from 196,926 tonnes in January and was down 19% from the same month last year.
According to Bloomberg calculations, Chinese after tax copper prices have traded at a premium to those in London for most of this year. The premium was about CNY 500 per tonne on March 19th 2010 down from this year’s high of CNY 3,000 in February.
Mr Ji Guoqin an analyst at Zhejiang Zhongda Futures Company said that the increase in imports is no surprise given the favorable arbitrage. A continuing shortage of scrap meant more demand for the refined metal.
Customs said that China imported 276,634 tonnes of scrap copper in February down from 337,443 tonnes the month before.
Commodity researcher CBI China Company said that copper purchases may rebound as China runs down inventories in bonded warehouses. Traders store shipments in a bonded zone before paying duties to the government.
The June delivery contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange declined 1% to CNY 59,610 per tonne at midday. Copper for 3 month delivery on the London Metal Exchange was little changed at USD 7,440 per tonne at 1:06 PM Shanghai time.
(Sourced from Bloomberg.net)
