SHANGHAI, May 22 (SMM) – Stocks of copper across Shanghai bonded area continued to fall sharply this week as high import profits prompted traders to move bonded cargoes to the domestic market. The import arbitrage window had kept open for a month. 

SMM data showed that the stocks decreased 25,000 mt in the week ended May 22 to 210,000 mt, marking the ninth consecutive week of decline. The bonded stocks shrank an accumulative 130,000 mt over the past nine weeks. 

Consumption in the domestic market slowed down and the import arbitrage window closed this week. But SMM expects the decline in copper bonded stocks to sustain for about two weeks and a rebound in the inventories is expected after two weeks.