China's imports of refined copper rose 17 percent on the month in September to hit a 16-month high on improved margins and increased stocking ahead of a peak demand season. Arrivals of refined copper to the world's top consumer rose to 275,499 tonnes in September, the highest level since May 2010 and a gain of 13.9 percent from September 2010, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Monday.
The breakdown of September data showed that the country's refined copper arrivals in the first nine months of the year fell 21.9 percent from a year earlier to 1.79 million tonnes. The multi-month high imports reflected buyers' expectations that China's copper demand would rise after September because of seasonal consumption, said Fu Bin, analyst at Jinrui Futures, a subsidiary of the country's top copper smelter Jiangxi Copper.
"Some of the imports in September were for stocking ahead of the seasonal demand rise," Fu said. Chinese copper fabricators typically raise production in October to December. Traders said the arbitrage between the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai had improved, prompting investors and merchants to buy spot copper in Asia last month to resell to the domestic market.
Chinese merchants and investors had booked refined copper imports in July-August and some shipments had arrived ahead of October's week-long National Day holiday, they said. Fu said power cable manufacturing plants, the top copper users in China, had increased buying of spot copper domestically this month as orders rose. Low prices had also been prompting end-users to increase buying of spot copper in the domestic market to build stocks in the past three trading days, which could raise imports further this month, Fu said.
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