China’s October copper concentrate imports slumped 11% from a year earlier, customs data showed on Tuesday, at a time when smelters face another profit hit as sulphuric acid prices fall.
Imports of copper concentrates, the main feedstock for smelters, fell to 2.17 million tonnes (Mt) from 2.45Mt a year earlier and 2.48Mtin September, according to the China’s General Administration of Customs.
Shipments in the January-to-October period fell 3.8% to 24.14Mt from 25.09Mt a year earlier.
The decline came as Chinese smelters faced mounting pressure from negative processing fees, while falling sulphuric acid prices eroded a key source of income that had helped offset their losses.
Smelters said production cuts were on the way.
Meanwhile, imports of unwrought copper and copper products edged down 1.7% to 453,000 tonnes in October from 461,000 tonnes in September, though they rose 3.4% from 438,000 tonnes a year earlier.
Imports of unwrought copper and copper products in the January-to-October period fell 5.5% to 4.21Mt from 4.46Mt a year earlier.
The data came as China’s physical copper market faced a supply crunch, with reduced domestic smelter output and limited arrivals of seaborne metal driving spot premiums to record highs.
(Reporting by Dylan Duan and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
