SHANGHAI, Apr. 10 (SMM) – Opinions on copper price outlook differed among Chinese copper wire rod producers, according to SMM’s latest survey.

38% of the producers surveyed were bearish, noting that the recent increase in copper prices were primarily a result of technical correction following March’s continuous declines, and copper prices were unlikely to stage strong rallies should macro conditions and fundamentals fail to turn around.

32% of enterprises expected LME copper prices would bounce back to $6,700-6,800 per tonne, with the aid of the above-200-yuan-per-tonne backwardation in China’s copper markets and falling SHFE copper stocks. These producers also based their views on anticipation for improving consumption and new pro-growth measures which were believed to help with a bottom-out in copper prices.

18% of the respondents saw stable copper prices for the foreseeable future, arguing that the climbing bonded copper stocks might continue pressuring premiums for imported copper despite firm backwardation in domestic copper market. The Yangshan premiums have fallen below $70 per tonne. In this context, losses for copper imports were expected to narrow, and domestic copper market would again come under great oversupply pressure once bonded stocks flow into the market.

The remaining 14% of producers saw no clear directions for copper prices.