IN SHORT: spot copper premiums to China steady

Spot copper premiums to China were steady at the start of the year on hopes that demand will pick up next month after the Lunar New Year break, traders said on Friday.
Bonded stocks, arrived in Shanghai and not yet assessed for China's 17 percent value-added tax, and imports due to arrive in the city in less than two weeks traded at premiums of about $120 to $140 a tonne over cash London Metal Exchange copper prices, compared to about $130 two weeks earlier, traders said. The spot premiums are higher than the $110 per tonne that Chinese firms will pay the world's top copper producer, Chile's Codelco, for 2012 and the $100 per tonne they will be paying Japanese producers for the year.