TC of China’s Imported Crude Copper of Long-term Order in 2018

China rare earth ore imports recorded 14,400 mt in January-February 2022, down 13% YoY which was mainly attributed to middle and heavy rare earth.

The SHFE and LME nickel prices diverged markedly in the afternoon trading on Tuesday. The SHFE/LME nickel price ratio shrank from 7.28 to 7.07. The import loss widened to $1,000/mt.

According to General Administration of Customs China imported 8.73 million mt of bauxite in December, up 13.32% month-on-month and 16.4% year-on-year.

China imported 4.01 million mt of nickel ore and its concentrate in November, a decrease of 10% from the previous month and a year-on-year increase of 12%, According to General Administration of Customs.

The trades remained subdued, and the Yangshan copper premiums changed little. Many trading companies have closed their accounts and are busy with the year-end settlement, lacking purchasing interest for spot cargoes. Import losses fluctuated between 200-400 yuan/mt during the week against the January contract.

This is a roundup of China's metals weekly inventory as of September 10.

Shanghai base metals all cruised higher on Friday morning as European Central Bank kept interest rate unchanged and US dollar weakened. Meanwhile, their counterparts on LME traded mixed.

China's import volume of unwrought copper and copper semis in August were 393,900 mt, a year-on-year decrease of 41.07%, and a month-on-month decrease of 7.2%. The imports from January to August were 3.61 million mt, a year-on-year decrease of 15.4%.

As of Monday August 23, copper inventory across major Chinese markets fell 7,800 mt from last Friday to 143,000 mt.

Shanghai base metals all went down on Friday night following the record low of the US weekly initial jobless claims. Meanwhile, their counterparts on LME basically went up.