China Copper Imports May Drop on Scrap Use

Bloomberg reports that imports of refined copper by China, the largest user, will probably drop for a second year as record prices spur consumption of scrap.

The market news is quoted as saying:

Net purchases may decline by 4.5 percent to 2.75 million metric tons this year from 2.88 million tons in 2010, Ren Gang, head of Maike’s research department, said in an interview yesterday. They fell 7.4 percent last year. The broker is a unit of Maike Metal International Group, a Xian-based metals company which trades as much as 500,000 tons a year, its website said.

Click here to access the entire news