GREY:NEVDQ - Post by User
Post by
bogfiton Aug 09, 2021 8:33am
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Post# 33670850
"Copper imports also fell for a fourth straight month,
"Copper imports also fell for a fourth straight month, with China buying 424,280 tonnes of unwrought metal, down from June's 428,437 tonnes and only slightly more than half the record 762,211 tonnes from July last year.
The release of 50,000 tonnes from China's state reserves and a loss of some momentum in key manufacturing indexes are most likely behind the softer imports of the industrial metal.
Additionally a change in import rules to allow purchases of higher-grade scrap copper also likely weighed on imports of refined copper, and since this a structural change, it may continue to have an impact in coming months.
Overall, the July trade data shows that China's commodity imports have moderated from the robust levels associated with last year's stimulus as part of Beijing's efforts to boost the economy in the wake of the pandemic.
It's likely that the rest of 2021 will see imports more around levels recorded in 2019, prior to the pandemic, rather than in the second half of 2020, when the stimulus was in full swing.
This means that they will remain solid, but won't be the engine that drove commodity prices sharply higher in the second half of last year and the first half of this year."
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/china-goes-driver-brake-crude-oil-iron-ore-copper-russell-2021-08-09/
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