Copper imports jumped

China's refined copper imports, the biggest in the world, more than doubled in the first seven months of this year from a year earlier, the Beijing-based customs office said.

According to the customs office's revised data, imports of the metal and its alloys rose a whopping 115% to 1.03 million metric tons from January to July. Imports were 103,089 tons in July, increased by 65.1% from a year earlier, and the figure was 113,074 tons in June, according to Bloomberg News data.

Scrap copper imports rose 17.7% to 2.99 million tons in the first seven months and gained 12.4% to 395,505 tons in July from a year earlier. And imports of copper concentrate, which typically contains about one-third of the metal and requires smelting, increased 27.4% to 2.64 million tons in the period and rose 33% to 367,505 tons in July.

Exports of aluminum declined 56.8% to 314,639 tons in the period and down 61.1% to 40,938 tons in July. Imports of aluminum dropped 47.7% to 165,607 tons in the seven-month period and dropped 59.1% to 18,353 tons in July.