SHANGHAI, Jun. 26 (SMM) – SMM sees China’s copper concentrate imports to fall further in June after May’s 5% month-on-month decline, as maintenance of copper smelters will leave concentrate demand weak.
China’s copper concentrate imports dropped 5% on the month to 984,300 tonnes in May, Customs data show.
Many Chinese smelters were in maintenance cycles during the past few months, cutting demand for copper concentrate, and this factor will continue to affect concentrate importation in June.
As notable, the import numbers were up 13.1% compared with May 2014. “The high spot TCs and bigger share of term contracts signed by Chinese smelter this year contributed largely to the year-on-year import growth,” SMM analyst says.
For news cooperation, please contact us by email: sallyzhang@smm.cn or service.en@smm.cn.