China copper concentrate imports rose 13% in November

SHANGHAI, Dec 9 (SMM) – China’s imports of copper concentrate expanded for a second straight month in November, increasing 12.7% from a month earlier to 2.16 million mt, customs data showed.

On a year-over-year basis, copper concentrate imports grew 27% last month. For the first 11 months of 2019, China’s imports of copper concentrate totaled 20.11 million mt, up 10.2% from the same period last year.

Customs data also showed that China’s imports of unwrought copper and copper products rose 12.1% month on month and 5.9% year on year to 483,000 mt in November, the highest monthly level since September 2018. This brought imports of unwrought copper and copper products in January-November to 4.45 million mt, down 8.5% year on year.

SMM data showed that copper stocks across Shanghai bonded areas rose in the week ended November 15, the first weekly increase in more than six months.

The stocks increased 10,300 mt in the past four weeks to 247,300 mt as of Friday December 6.