Spot import trades for London Metal Exchange-registered brands of copper cathode on a CIF China basis continued to be thin as physical buying interest remained extremely weak in view of the current seasonal lull, market sources said Wednesday.
Platts kept the weekly CFR China copper premiums assessment steady at $80-105/mt Wednesday, unchanged from last week as bids and offers remained within the range.
A Southeast Asian trader kept his export premiums steady at $80-100/mt CIF China, while a second Southeast Asian trader indicated export premiums at $95-105/mt CIF, unchanged from last week.
The price difference between CFR and CIF is negligible.
"Even at $80/mt, nobody is buying," said the first Southeast Asian trader.
The second Southeast Asian trader agreed, adding that banks in China and several Asian countries had tightened their credit policy following the Qingdao port probe.
In June, Qingdao port halted shipments of aluminum and copper amid a probe into loan irregularities involving stocks in the warehouses.
"Most Chinese buyers have financing issues. Banks are not lending them money to import," the second Southeast Asian trader added.
Chinese copper importers are mostly traders who keep a close watch on LME and domestic copper prices for arbitrage opportunities.
Chinese sources were also hearing steady import premiums at similar level with the buying interest staying extremely weak.
An east China-based analyst said the import premiums were moving in a narrow range amid thin trade, while a north China-based trader heard steady premiums around $90/mt.
"We saw a drop of around $5/mt in the import premiums late last week but it regained the loss this week to $95-105/mt. There's really nothing much in the market," the eastern Chinese analyst said.
This eastern Chinese analyst added that Chinese market participants were unmoved though the import-related loss for Chinese imports had narrowed to Yuan 600-700/mt ($98-114/mt) from around Yuan 800/mt last week.
"Chinese market participants are not importing as they can't borrow from banks due to stringent credit policy following the Qingdao port probe," the eastern Chinese analyst said.
Chinese sources added that lower copper stocks in the country had probably cushioned the fall in domestic prices due to weaker LME prices.
China's copper stocks slipped below 80,000 mt in Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses after four consecutive weeks of falls.
Inventories stood at 79,778 mt last Friday, down 7.8% week on week, the latest weekly data from the exchange showed.
Front-month September copper futures closed Wednesday at Yuan 50,210/mt on the SHFE, down from Yuan 50,570/mt last week.
Chinese domestic spot copper was around Yuan 50,500/mt Wednesday, down from Yuan 51,180/mt last Wednesday.
The LME official cash price for copper stood at $6,965-6,965.50/mt Tuesday compared with $7,095-7,096/mt a week ago.
Meanwhile, Chinese spot copper concentrate treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) generally were steady at $100-110/mt and 10-11 cents/lb, respectively, unchanged from the previous week, industry sources said.
TC/RCs -- fees charged to miners by smelters to treat and refine copper concentrate to produce copper metal -- typically rise when concentrate supply is ample and fall when supply is tight.
