China’s imports of copper concentrate rise to all-time high in Jul

SHANGHAI, Aug 26 (SMM) – China’s imports of copper concentrate rose to an all-time high of 2.07 million mt in July, exceeding 2 million mt for the first time, showed a monthly report by China Customs on August 23.

This was up 12.6% from July 2018 and over 40% from June as smelting capacity in China spiked and after chaos at mines in Peru impacted shipments in June.

About 1.47 million mt of copper concentrate was imported to China in June, the lowest in 2019 and far below the monthly average of 1.8 million mt in the first half of the year.

Customs data also showed that imports of copper concentrate rose 10.8% year on year to 12.62 million mt in the first seven months of 2019.  

For the same period, China’s imports of unwrought copper and copper products declined 11.7% to 2.69 million mt.