Analysts International financial conglomerate «Citigroup» (New York, United States) believe: the market of refined copper in China slumped as close as possible to the point of balance between the level of metal production in the country and the volume of its consumption. «Today, Chinese producers meet 73% of the requests of local consumers of copper cathode, that nearly 60% more than a decade-old data," — said the expert «of Citi» David Wilson. «The dynamics of the PRC on the red metal is as follows: resource consumption in the country is growing in parallel with the increasing participation of local companies in question meet the domestic market needs. At the same time deficit of refined copper are increasingly not replenished the supply of expensive high value added products, and raw materials for its production (usually — rich copper-bearing ore from which local companies are already refined copper), «- says the analyst.

According to experts, the above dynamics of the Chinese copper market is well illustrated by statistics of customs services of the state in February. «In the second month of this year, the amount of ore imported into the country for the production of copper rose to a mark of 680 thousand. Tonnes. The growth rates year on year for imports of this product was 8.5%. At the same time, the number of imported into the territory of the Republic of cathode copper fell by 43%, which was a record-low rate for the sector over a period of one and a half year «- commented on the data of the Chinese import market analysts nonferrous metals.