Nov 16 (LTIT) –China's output of major copper products increased steadily in the first three quarters of the year, showed data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Wednesday November 14.

For the same period, production of refined copper and copper materials stood at 6.61 million mt and 12.49 million mt, respectively, up 11.2% and 12% from the same period last year. Data showed that copper cathode production amounted to 6.51 million mt.

In the first three quarters, profits registered 5.28 billion yuan in domestic copper mining, 9.22 billion yuan in copper smelting, and 10.68 billion yuan in copper processing, showed MIIT data.

Imports of unwrought copper and copper products rose 16.1% year on year to 3.99 million mt, and imports of copper concentrate grew 19.5% to 14.99 million mt, in physical content.

Separately, imports of unwrought copper and copper products in October lost 18.7% from September and stood at 423,000 mt, showed data from China Customs.

This grew year-to-date unwrought copper and semis imports to 4.413 million mt, compared to 3.764 million mt in the same period of 2017.