DJ Copper, Nickel Futures Rise Sharply After China Import Data...

DJ Copper, Nickel Futures Rise Sharply After China Import Data -- 3rd Update​

15/02/2016 06:35PM AEST​

By Biman Mukherji


HONG KONG--Prices of copper and nickel futures on the London Metal Exchange rallied Monday on the back of China's robust import data for some metals.
Copper futures were trading up by 2.2% at $4,599.50 a metric ton, while nickel futures rose by 5% to $8,215 a ton.
China's copper and copper product imports in January rose 7.3% from a year ago to 440,000 metric tons, according to data from Chinese customs.
Imports of the metal were down from December's near-record level, when there was an attractive arbitrage opportunity between Shanghai and London, but were still above a two-year monthly average of 400,000 tons, ANZ Bank said in a report. Imports during January benefited from preholiday restocking before the Lunar New Year holiday in early February, the bank said. China is the world's largest consumer of copper. Also, iron-ore imports rose 4.6% year-over-year in January.
"With prices dipping below $40/ton early in January, there appears to have been some opportunistic buying," said ANZ Bank.
Nickel is mainly used for making stainless steel. Prices of nickel had recently plunged to multiyear lows on fears of a Chinese slowdown and excess supplies.
Other base metals also gained after the release of the import data, though not as sharply. Three-month zinc futures prices rose 0.10% to $1,707.50 a ton, while aluminum increased 0.7% to $1,511 a ton.
The import data bolstered sentiment in metals, reinforcing a belief in the market that a bout of previous selling that had put pressure on industrial metals was overdone.
However, China's overall imports were down 18.8% from a year earlier, while exports fell 11.2% from a year ago. China's exports of steel products in January fell 5.3% year-over-year to 9.74 million tons.
Daniel Ang, investment analyst for Phillip Futures, said the import trend for metals indicated that China's demand had firmed up in the infrastructure sector, though the economy was far from being out of the woods.
Chinese metals producers have been resorting to greater exports after the domestic economic slowdown. However, these have recently come under pressure as other nations have sought to stem inflows of cheap Chinese metals to protect their own domestic industries.
--Yifan Xie in Shanghai contributed to this article

Write to Biman Mukherji at [email protected]
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 15, 2016 02:35 ET (07:35 GMT)

Looking good for OZL especially with a big ann. re Carra with sentiment turning on Cu