Copper Future price snaps back as China imports soar 81%

Copper futures prices rebounded sharply on Monday on the surge in Chinese imports of the metal, widely used in industry and construction.

Copper for delivery in September trading in New York changed hands for $ 2.8850 a pound ($ 6,360 a ton) in afternoon trading, snapping 3.3% off a sharp drop on Friday.

In March, the Bellwether metal briefly traded below $ 2.00, last seen during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, but has now rebounded nearly 50%.

Customs data released on Friday showed that China’s copper imports (anodes and cathodes) rose by an impressive 81% to 762,211 tons in July compared to the same month last year, up 16% on the monthly record set in June.

In the first seven months of 2020, 21.7 million tons will be imported annually, compared to the record number of 22 million tons in 2019.

In the first seven months of the year, imports totaled 3.6 million tons, slightly surpassing the 2018 annual record of 5.3 million tons.

Copper concentrate imports in July rose more than 12% from the 9-month low in June to 1.795 million tons, but declined 13.5% from July last year, reflecting disruptions in mines in Peru, China’s main supplier , was due.

He Tianyu, an analyst at CRU, told Reuters the record high was mainly due to the spread between copper prices in London and Shanghai, which made buying metal from overseas cheaper, and purchases made at the height of the coronavirus in the country were pushed back.

That arbitrage window has now closed, and He Tianyu warned that copper demand could decline in the third quarter as consumer feedback during a recent visit to Jiangsu Province, a major smelting region, said demand for refined copper was increasing Is “only mediocre”.