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China imported 2.1 million mt of copper ore and concentrate in April 2023, up 11.6% on the year and 4.1% on the month. YTD imports through April stood at 8.76 million mt, up 6.7% year-on-year. SMM predicts that China's copper ore and concentrate imports in May will fall to 2.076 million mt due to the reduction in raw materials demand from Chinese smelters undertaking maintenance.
According to customs data, China imported 4,443 mt of refined nickel in March.
As of last Friday, Yangshan copper premiums with a quotation period in May stood at $17-32/mt under warrants during May 8-12, with the average up $2/mt from a week earlier. Those stood between $40-55/mt under bill of lading with a quotation period in June, with the average up $7/mt. As of May 12, the SHFE/LME copper price ratio stood at 7.88, and import profit stood at 118/mt.
Imports of steel scrap totalled 166,000 mt in the first three months of 2023, up 230% YoY. With the liberalisation of imports of raw materials for secondary steel from January 1, 2021, scrap steel imports have been increasing steadily. Yet, China's steel scrap imports are at an extremely low level mainly because there are only five customs commodity codes corresponding to the types of steel scrap that can be imported. The import standards for specification and impurity content are stringent and some details are not clearly defined.
Iron ore and concentrate imports totalled 385 million mt in the first four months of 2023, a year-on-year growth of 8.6%, according to Customs data. Iron ore and concentrates imports totalled 90.44 million mt in April, a year-on-year growth of 5.1%. On overseas supply, a hurricane in mid-April affected shipments from Australia.