GACC: China's Jan-Apr copper concentrate imports jump 8% YoY

The rise was largely driven by strong April arrivals, with imports of copper concentrates surging to 2.92 million tonnes – up 22.1% from March and 24.4% higher than April 2024's 2.35 million tonnes, the GACC data showed.

On the other hand, by the end of April China's inventories of electrolytic copper had fallen to their lowest level in nearly four months. As of April 30, spot inventories in major bonded zones – which account for about 95% of the national total – had dropped to 100,200 tonnes, marking a steep 54.8% plunge from 221,500 tonnes at the end of March, according to Mysteel's survey.

The sharp inventory drawdown prompted domestic copper smelters to rapidly begin restocking ore, triggering aggressive procurement of copper concentrates last month. This heightened buying interest also lifted the average import price of copper ore to $2,626.7/tonne, compared with March's $2,395.8/tonne, based on Mysteel Global's calculations from GACC data.

In contrast, China's imports of unwrought copper fell by 3.9% year-on-year to 1.81 million tonnes over January-April. Despite the dip in volume, the total import value had increased by 3.2% from a year earlier to $16.2 billion, the GACC data showed.

Unwrought copper imports in April reached 438,000 tonnes, down 6.2% from March and marginally lower by 0.5% from April 2024's 440,000 tonnes.

However, the average price paid for unwrought copper imports climbed on year. In April, it averaged $9,806.6/tonne – up from $9,746.7/tonne in March and significantly higher than the $9,155.3/tonne recorded in April 2024, according to Mysteel Global's calculations.

Written by Adele Pan, panqinjie@mysteel.com   

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