Imports of unwrought copper and copper products totalled 408,174 tonnes in March, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.
The purchases, which included anode, refined, alloy and semi-finished copper products, compared with imports of 504,009 tonnes in March 2022.
Investors had hoped for a strong recovery in China's copper demand after it abandoned COVID curbs late last year. The metal is widely used in power, construction, transport and air conditioning sectors.
Actual consumption, however, remained weak in the top global metals consumer. The market only started to see a recovery from March, primarily due to a seasonal peak in demand.
Doubts about the strength of post-COVID factory recovery also arose from slower growth in manufacturing activity in March, amid weaker global demand and a property market downturn. The yearly decline largely reflected shrinking inflows of refined copper.
"We estimate March import may be around 200,000 tonnes, down from 302,000 tonnes the same month last year and 228,000 tonnes in February," said Lynn Zhao, a commodity strategist at Macquarie.
Domestic production of refined copper jumped 14% on the year to 858,900 tonnes in March, a survey by state-backed research house Antaike showed.
Copper arrivals in the first quarter of the year stood at
1.3 million tonnes, down 12.6% from the same period a year ago.
The import arbitrage window stayed largely closed over the last month, suggesting unfavourable conditions because of higher prices in London, said Zhang Weixin, a metals analyst at China Futures.
Despite a notable price downturn around mid-March caused by
a heavy sell-off due to turmoil in the banking sector, the
benchmark copper contract on the London Metal Exchange (LME)
ended March at $8,993 a tonne. Imports of copper ore and concentrate stood at 2.02 million
tonnes in March, down 7.3% from a year earlier, the customs data
showed.
(Reporting by Siyi Liu and Dominique Patton; Editing by
Christian Schmollinger and Tom Hogue)
