GACC: China's Jan-Feb copper concentrate imports rise 1.3% YoY

GACC has combined January and February foreign trade data since 2020 to synchronize with data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, as normal data collection and releases tend to be disrupted by the Chinese New Year break that usually falls in these two months, Mysteel Global notes.

The average unit price of imported copper concentrates during this year's two months stood at $2,425.3/tonne, slightly higher than the December average of $2,423.3/t, according to Mysteel Global's calculations based on GACC data. This also reflected an increase from $2,326.7/t in the same period last year, as calculated.

In contrast, China's imports of unwrought copper declined 7.2% YoY in January-February to 837,000 tonnes, though the total import value inched up 0.5% compared with the same period last year to $7.89 billion, the GACC data showed.

The average unit price of imported unwrought copper exhibited a significant gain on year, with the unit price averaging $9,421.7/t during the first two months, significantly higher than $8,700/t in the same period last year, according to Mysteel Global's calculations.

Written by Adele Pan, panqinjie@mysteel.com   

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com