China's copper imports rose to a record level for the second consecutive month in July, according to data released by China Customs on Friday, as favorable international prices kept the arbitrage window open and strong demand from the world's leading copper consumers.

    China imported 762211 tons of unwrought copper and copper products last month, up 16.1% from the previous record of 656483 tons set in June and 81.5% higher than 420000 tons in July 2019, the General Administration of Customs said.

    In July, as a key source of copper demand, China's manufacturing activity expanded for the fifth consecutive month. The construction industry is another major copper application industry, and excavator sales, the industry's weather vane, increased more than 40% year-on-year last month.

    Cru analyst He Tianyu said China's copper imports hit a record high mainly because of the price difference between London and Shanghai, which made it cheaper to buy copper from abroad, thus forming the so-called arbitrage. The arbitrage window will be closed around July 20.

    He also pointed out that copper demand was particularly good in the second quarter, as demand fell in the * * quarter. There is also a good demand for copper in the air conditioning industry.

    According to customs data, the import volume of copper concentrate in July was 1.795 million tons. The figure was 12.6% higher than in June, but down 13.5% from a year earlier.

    Copper smelters are currently trying to get enough copper concentrate due to a shortage of supply from mining to curb coronavirus.

    Meanwhile, China's exports of unwrought aluminum and aluminum products were 373402.3 tons last month. This is a 5.5% increase over June, a low monthly increase since February 2019, but still down 23.3% from a year earlier.

    As the spread of the epidemic overseas has reduced industrial demand, aluminum orders from China, which is also the largest aluminum producer in the world, have been affected.

    China's copper demand is likely to decline in the third quarter, he said, as customers reflected that demand for refined copper was moderate during a recent visit to Jiangsu, a major smelting Province in China.

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