SHANGHAI: China's copper imports rose 9.9 percent from a month ago in June on the back of more attractive import prices, while shipments of key commodities such as crude oil, iron ore and aluminium fell, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
China's imports grew a surprisingly weak 19.3 percent in June from a year earlier, slowing from the 28.4 percent pace in May, reflecting softer domestic demand as a tighter monetary policy starts to bite.
Copper imports to China, the world's leading copper and aluminium consumer, climbed to 280,009 tonnes in June, up from 254,738 tonnes in May.
"June's arbitrage ratios were attractive for imports," Zhuo Guiqiu, an analyst at Minmetals Futures said ahead of the release of the data. He added that some of the imports may have been delivered from the LME warehouses in Singapore and South Korea, the nearest LME warehouses to China.
"Demand was not bad in June and should be able to absorb increased imports," Zhuo said.
However, total copper imports for the first six months of 2011 was down 23.8 percent from a year ago at 1.7 million tonnes, the customs agency said on Sunday.
China is the world's second-largest consumer of crude oil, and June imports fell 8.6 percent from the previous month to 19.7 million tonnes. Oil product imports rose a marginal 0.3 percent from month ago to 3.4 million tonnes.
Imports of unwrought aluminium, including primary, alloy and semi-finished aluminium products, fell by 13.9 percent to 64,491 tonnes. China had shipped in 74,880 tonnes in May.
Iron ore imports in June also dipped to 51.09 million tonnes, compared with 53.30 million tonnes in the preceding month.
COPYRIGHT REUTERS, 2011
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