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China reported stronger-than-anticipated exports and imports for May despite falling commodity prices, suggesting the economy is holding up better than expected despite rising lending rates and a cooling property market.
China's unwrought copper arrivals also jumped from a month earlier, making up for a drop in concentrate imports that had been impacted by supply disruptions in Indonesia and Chile.
"Refined copper imports tend to increase when there is limited availability of concentrate, so the decrease in concentrate supply could be the result of a lingering effect from the strike in Chile and supply disruptions at Freeport in Indonesia," said analyst Amy Li of National Australia Bank in Melbourne.