Chinese imports of copper ores and concentrates in November rose 10.6% year on year to 920,000 mt, according to latest statistics published by the General Administration of Customs Saturday.
The November figure, however, was 2.1% lower than that recorded in October.
For the first 11 months of the year, imports totaled 9.04 million mt, up 31.1% year on year.
Chinese sources said the rising imports had led to higher spot copper concentrate treatment and refining charges, or TC/RCs.
TC/RCs, the fees charged to miners by smelters to treat and refine their copper concentrate to produce copper metal, typically rise when concentrate supply is ample and fall when supply is tight.
In December, spot TC/RCs were at $100-110/mt and 10-11 cents/lb, respectively, unchanged from November but up from $9-100/mt and 9-10 cents/lb in October.
Industry sources said Chinese producers were also importing more copper concentrate as the supply of copper scrap imports tightened.
An east China-based analyst said most of the Chinese smelters had been running their concentrate-fed lines to the maximum capacity while slowing down those that use scraps.
China imported 430,000 mt of copper scraps in November, down 8.5% year on year but up 19.4% on the month.
Over January-November, imports amounted to 4 million mt, down 10% year on year.