SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -China’s November copper imports hit a one-year high, customs data showed on Tuesday, fueled by firm demand and lower inventories, as well as more shipments from Africa.
Imports of unwrought copper and products stood at 528,000 tons last month, up 4.3% from October’s imports, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
The figure was the highest since last November, when imports reached 550,566 tons.
The data includes anode, refined, alloy and semi-finished copper products.
“Copper consumption has been quite good this year, as evidenced by the home appliance production data in China,” said Zhao Yongcheng, a principal analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI).
Manufacturing and service activities in the world’s top metals consumer both expanded at moderate rates last month, as shown by official and private surveys.
Domestic inventories declined further over the past month amid robust demand for the metal used widely in the power, construction and transportation sectors.
Deliverable copper stocks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell last month to a nine-month low of 108,775 tons on Nov. 29, down 29% from 153,221 tons on Nov. 1.
The higher imports came amid a drop in copper prices, in China and globally, as investors sold off bullish positions on the potential for tariffs under U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and disappointment over the lack of aggressive Chinese stimulus.
Meanwhile, there was an increase in copper shipments from Africa, mainly from the assets owned by Chinese companies like CMOC Group, Zhao said.
For the first 11 months of the year, unwrought copper imports totalled 5.13 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.7%, the data showed.
Imports of copper concentrate last month stood at 2.25 million tons, down 7.8% from a year earlier.
Copper concentrate imports totalled 25.6 million tons for the first 11 months, up 2.2% from a year earlier.
(Reporting by Violet Li in Shanghai and Siyi Liu in Singapore; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Stephen Coates)
