Bloomberg reported that copper imports by China rose for the first time in 3 months in June as buying from overseas became profitable and supply tightened after consumers drained local stockpiles in the world’s largest consumer.
The General Administration of Customs said that inbound shipments gained 10% to 280,009 tonnes compared with 254,738 tonnes in May. Imports were 15% lower than 328,231 tonnes a year ago.
Mr Diego Hernandez CEO of Codelco said that increased demand may lift prices which gained to an almost 3 month high in London on July 8th 2011 amid supply disruptions in Chile and Indonesia. Stockpiles in Shanghai have fallen by half since reaching the highest level this year in March. China’s copper purchases accelerated in the past three to 4 weeks and the market remains relatively tight.
Mr Wang Mingyi an analyst at Galaxy Futures Company said that starting from late May we’ve seen positive arbitrage for most of the time. As transportation takes one to two months, arrivals in July should be even higher.
According to customs, Arbitrage traders seek to profit from price differences between bourses by purchasing the metal in London and selling in Shanghai. Total imports of unwrought copper and copper products in the first half of this year fell 24% from a year earlier to 1.7 million tonnes.
According to Shenzhen Rongtuo Trading Company, stockpiles monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange have fallen to 89,498 tonnes from this year’s high of 177,365 tonnes. Copper in bonded warehouses has dropped to 350,000 tons to 400,000 tons from a record 600,000 tons at the end of March. The warehouses located in Shanghai’s free trade zones are used to store arrivals that haven’t cleared customs.
Customs data showed that scrap imports in June totaled 420,000 tonnes up from 400,000 tonnes in May and 350,000 tonnes in June 2010. Total arrivals in the first half of this year gained 8.2% from a year ago to 2.2 million tonnes.
Sourced from Bloomberg.net
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