China Oct copper imports rise as demand outlook brightens
Writes through with details
By Siyi Liu and Mei Mei Chu
BEIJING/SINGAPORE, Nov 7 (Reuters) -China's imports of unwrought copper rose in October from a year earlier, customs data showed on Thursday, boosted by improving seasonal demand and a better outlook for consumption of the industrial metal.
Imports of unwrought copper and products were 506,000 metric tons last month, up 1.1% from the corresponding period last year, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
September and October are traditionally a strong demand period for industrial metals as manufacturing activities pick up after the summer lull, while the Golden Week holiday in October bolstered travel and consumption of goods.
Government economic stimulus in September also brightened the demand outlook for the metal used in power, construction and transport, driving global prices higher.
China's manufacturing activity expanded in October for the first time in six months, official data showed last week.
Services activity in the world's second-largest economy also expanded at the fastest pace in three months in October, a private-sector survey showed this week.
Domestic inventories declined in August and September, prompting more buying of overseas cargoes.
The premium for copper delivered to warehouses in the eastern port of Yangshan, a widely watched indicator of China's import appetite, peaked at an intra-year high of $69 per ton in early October, before declining to $48 per ton last week. SMM-CUYP-CN
The October figure was up from the 479,000 tons imported in the prior month.
The data includes anode, refined, alloy and semi-finished copper products.
For the first ten months of 2024, copper imports were up 2.4% at 4.6 million tons, the data showed.
China produced 10.04 million tons of refined copper in the first nine months this year, up 5.4% from the same period a year earlier, the statistics bureau's data showed.
Imports of copper concentrate last month stood at 2.31 million tons, up 0.2% from a year earlier, customs data showed.
Copper concentrate imports totalled 23.36 million tons for the first ten months, up 3.3% from a year earlier.
Reporting by Siyi Liu and Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Jamie Freed and Clarence Fernandez
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