The most-traded February copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slipped 0.3 percent to 56,930 yuan a tonne. China's copper imports in November reached their highest level since March 2010, rising 17.9 percent on the month to 452,022 tonnes, preliminary data from China's General Administration of Customs showed on Saturday.
The increase in purchases came after prices had fallen, making it cheaper for the world's largest copper user to boost stockpiles. China produced 448,000 tonnes of refined copper in November, down 4.5 percent on the month, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday, with domestic prices also falling.
Concern that China's economic expansion may falter as Europe's debt crisis spreads has driven London copper prices down by 20 percent this year, snapping a sequence of two annual gains. China's annual economic growth is likely to slow to 8.5 percent in 2012, an academic adviser to the country's central bank said in remarks published on Monday.
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