CHINA June 18 2015 4:27 PM

BEIJING (Scrap Register): China's inbound shipments of copper ore and concentrates declined by 5.7% from a month earlier to 700,000 tons in May, according to latest data.

Nevertheless, compared with May 2014, imports increased by a whopping 40%.

The country's refined copper output reached 650,000 tons in May, rose by 6% from a year earlier.

As the largest copper consumer, China has the largest import volumes of copper ore, anodes and refined copper. The decline in China's copper imports is a negative sign for copper producers in South America where copper mining is concentrated.