SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s unwrought copper imports declined by 7.2% year-on-year to 837,000 metric tons in the first two months of 2025, customs data on Friday showed, due to increased domestic smelting capacity that reduced the need for additional imports.
Copper prices, both in China and globally, rose following U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
The data includes anode, refined, alloy and semi-finished copper products.
Deliverable copper stocks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange stood at 268,337 tons on February 28, more than double the 83,174 tons recorded on January 3. Imports of copper concentrate stood at 4.71 million tons for January and February, up 1.3% from corresponding period last year, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
China combines import data for January and February into one release to smooth out the impact of the Lunar New Year holidays, which can fall in either of these months each year.
(Reporting by Violet Li and Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Jamie Freed)
