SMM7, 23 Feb: China imported 170000 tons of scrap copper in June, the same as in May, but down 15.8 percent from a year earlier, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs on Tuesday.

Overall, imports of scrap copper from January to June were 857300 tons, down 25 per cent from 1.143 million tons in the same period last year.

As in May, although the physical volume of imported scrap copper dropped sharply compared with the same period last year, due to the overall change from "six categories" to "seven categories" this year, accompanied by an increase in the grade of copper scrap, SMM had previously estimated that the cumulative amount of scrap copper imported from January to May this year was about 67000 tons higher than that of the same period last year. According to SMM's preliminary calculation, the amount of scrap copper imported from January to May this year increased by about 67000 tons compared with the same period last year. Imports of scrap copper increased by about 40, 000 to 50, 000 metal tons in June compared with the same period last year, so domestic imports of scrap copper will increase by more than 100000 metal tons in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year, and the supply of scrap copper is not in short supply.

However, the recent scrap copper market is still more concerned about the situation of scrap copper import approval.

On July 10, the website of the solid waste Center published the tenth batch of restricted copper import approval list in 2019, which contains the list of six types of scrap copper import approval, which is the second batch of restricted copper import approval list announced on June 10, involving a total of 124450 tons of import scrap copper approval. According to SMM, the scrap six types of approval documents are issued quarterly, and the amount of scrap copper approvals now basically accounts for about 30 percent of the total amount of six categories of scrap copper in 2018. And most enterprises received more approvals than the actual imports in the third quarter of last year. "correlation Analysis-[SMM exclusive] the second batch of restricted copper import approvals that you would like to know about

At present, in order to ensure that the relevant waste enterprises can gradually adapt to the operation of the approval system, the amount of copper scrap metal involved in the approval document in the third quarter can still ensure the normal production of the enterprise. However, because the approval documents are issued on a quarterly basis, it is not known what will happen in the fourth quarter, and whether the volume of scrap copper imports will continue to narrow due to the restrictions imposed by the approval documents.

At present, as the downstream copper market has basically entered the off-season of sales, the situation of the scrap copper market is not optimistic. According to SMM research data, the operating rate of scrap copper rod enterprises in June was 47.80%, 6.64% less than the previous month, and 18.53% less than the same period last year. Superimposed supply did not appear the previously expected tightening, so the scrap copper market presents a situation of weak supply and demand, giving some support to refined copper consumption, but the subsequent specific supply and demand situation should be judged according to the issuance of scrap copper approval in the fourth quarter.

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