Shanghai Futures Exchange copper was down half a percent at 53,330 yuan ($8,442) a tonne on Monday after reports over the weekend that base metal imports to China jumped in January, underlining the country's healthy demand. "Downstream demand looks pretty healthy, there has been a little bit of a constraint on production of various processed products during winter," said UBS analyst Daniel Morgan.
"I'm bullish copper and zinc," he said. China's imports of copper, nickel and zinc grew strongly in January. Copper imports rose 13 percent to 314,525 tonnes, refined nickel imports doubled to 26,691 tonnes and refined zinc imports surged 287 percent to 67,111 tonnes.