PREVIEW-China April copper imports likely held at record high

China's imports of unwrought copper and semi-finished copper products in April likely remained at or above March's record high, as a pick-up in end-user demand added to arbitrage trade and state stockpiling.

But April's imports of aluminium including primary, alloy and semi-finished products are expected to surge from March's multi-year high in April. Inflow of primary metal is expected to come in above 200,000 tonnes -- more than double the previous month -- because of attractive import margins.

China, the world's top consumer of copper and aluminium, will release April figures next Monday, but the inflow of refined copper and primary aluminium, indication of consumption in the country, will only be announced in late May.

To see graphics of copper and primary aluminium imports, click: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/059/CN_CPRIMP0509.jpg http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/059/CN_ALMP0509.jpg

"April's imports of refined copper should not be less than March's, or (should be ) at least similar to March's," said Jing Chuan, chief researcher at Great Wall Futures in Shanghai. "There is a chance that April's imports will be another record."

He added the State Reserves Bureau (SRB) had continued to receive booked imports of refined copper last month, but did not provide a figure.

In March, China imported record 374,953 tonnes of unwrought copper including anode, refined and alloy, and semi-finished products of which 296,843 tonnes were refined. <CU-CNREFIMP>

Inflows of refined copper in March were boosted by arbitrage trade, state buying and fabricators' increased purchases to replace scrap as low imports of the cheaper feed were reducing domestic supply. Scrap imports fell by half in the first two months of this year. [ID:nPEK66792]

But March's record imports failed to push down Chinese prices of spot refined copper <CN-1-CCNMM>, which still rose 10 percent in April versus an 11 percent increase on the London Metal Exchange <MCU0>, because part of the inflow was stored by the SRB and domestic demand had warmed up.

Analysts said they expected the same factors in March to spill over to April.

"We heard that orders for copper tubes from Zhejiang have increased and export orders for central air-con units have risen," said Zhu Yanzhong, an analyst at Jinrui Futures, a subsidiary of top Chinese copper smelter Jiangxi Copper.

Copyright and Exemption Declaration :¢ÙAll articles, pictures and videos that are marked with "China Aluminum Network" on this website are copyright and belong to China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn). When transshipment, any media, website or individual must list the source from "China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn)". We seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÚArticles that marked as copy from others are for transferring more information to readers, do not represent or endorse their opinions or accuracy and reliability. When other media, website or individuals copy from our website, must keep the source. Anyone that changes the articles' sources will hold the responsibilities for copyright and law problems. We also seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÛIf any articles copied by our website concern the copyright and other problems, please contact us within one week.