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China July copper imports decrease on weak demand

China's unwrought copper imports moved in July from a year earlier, customizeds data showed on Wednesday, amidst suppressed demand and high stocks of the metal.

Imports of unwrought copper and items were 438,000 metric lots last month, down 2.9% from 451,159 heaps a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs revealed.

The data consists of anode, fine-tuned, alloy and semi-finished copper products.

The lower imports come amidst stubbornly weak need in the world's leading consumer of the metal utilized in power and building sectors.

Amid a protracted property crisis, China's production activity slipped to a five-month low in July, with retail sales, capital market services and realty service industries all shrinking.

State-backed research study house Antaike expects China's fine-tuned copper usage development to slow down to about 2.5% this year, from 5.3% in 2023.

Drab demand and strong domestic production resulted in a higher-than-usual rise in inventories this year.

Deliverable copper stocks in the warehouses of Shanghai Futures Exchange have risen at around 300,000 loads because April, a four-year high << CU-STX-SGH >

. For the very first seven months of the year, copper imports were up 5.4% at 3.2 million lots, the data revealed.

Imports of copper concentrate were 2.17 million loads for July, up 9.6% from a year previously, customizeds data revealed.

Copper concentrate imports totalled 16.06 million loads for the first seven months, up 4.5% from a year previously.

(source: Reuters)