China September copper imports up 20 pct on better margins. AUY, MAI.v, TNR.v

"HONG KONG, Oct 14 (Reuters) - China's imports of unwrought copper and semi-finished copper products rose 20 percent in September on the month, as merchants increased spot imports on attractive margins. Prices of spot refined copper in China were higher than costs of imported material for much of the month, a turnaround from previous months, as low imports previously had reduced supply and supported prices. 'This should give the market a boost. The market was expecting a rise, given the arbitrage. This signals that there is still interest in copper in China,' said Mark Pervan, senior commodities analyst at ANZ. 'We still need another month or two of data to confirm a trend, as this might just be a bounce after the Olympics.' The world's top copper consumer imported 213,782 tonnes of unwrought copper in September, including anode, refined and alloy, and semi-finished copper products, versus 178,047 tonnes in August. 'The increase was due to improved price ratios last month,' Wang Danping, an analyst at Jinrui Futures, said. 'Of the imports, we believe refined copper imports should be around 100,000 tonnes,' she said. Wang's estimated refined copper imports would be about 15 percent higher than August's."