China Feb refined copper imports, daily demand up

* China monthly copper demand down, but up on a daily basis

* China Feb refined copper imports up 12 pct to 220,530 T

* Imports of aluminium, zinc fall but apparent consumption up

By Polly Yam

HONG KONG, March 22 （Reuters） - China's implied demand for copper rose in February, showing the country's appetite for the metal remains strong even as Beijing tries to rein in breakneck growth.

Attractive margins lifted refined copper imports by 12 percent on the month, boosting apparent copper demand in the world's top user of the metal by 10 percent on a daily basis.

“Demand from the cable sector is strong. Most clients are relatively aggressive,” said Zhao Guocan, senior analyst at Founder Futures in Hunan province, home to many electric cable and wire producers.

“Clients say they would jump out and buy copper if prices fall to the 55,000 yuan level,” Zhao said, adding the availability of cash remained abundant in the market despite Beijing's monetary tightening.

China's refined copper imports rose 12 percent on the month to 220,530 tonnes in February, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed on Monday, which traders said was probably due to attractive margins for spot arrivals and ahead of forecasts for 190,000 tonnes.

“It's all about price ratios,” Zhu Yanzhong, analyst at Jinrui Futures said, referring to arbitrage buying from the London Metal Exchange   and selling to Shanghai .

But he said the price ratios had turned unfavourable for spot imports for much of March and that would trim inflows of refined copper this month to between 200,000 and 220,000 tonnes. 

Apparent consumption for refined copper, based on figures of net imports, output and Shanghai Futures Exchange stocks, stood at 528,563 tonnes per month in the shortest month of the year, equivalent to 18,877 tonnes per day versus 17,163 tonnes in January, according to Reuters calculations.

The February consumption was down 8.7 percent from a year earlier due to increased stocks, with Shanghai Futures Exchange copper inventories up 63.5 percent in the month.

ALUMINIUM, ZINC

Apparent consumption of primary aluminium rose 13 percent on a daily basis in February, while imports of primary aluminium dropped 52.1 percent from a month earlier to 19,171 tonnes in February due to poor margins, the customs data showed.

Traders said many Chinese importers had received delayed shipments from the fourth quarter of last year and had not booked many new shipments for the first quarter of this year as the arbitrage window closed.

The same reason drove down imports of refined zinc 52 percent to 13,917 tonnes in February from January, while imports of refined nickel and alloys were at 12,243 tonnes in February, down 24.5 percent from the previous month.

The consumption of refined zinc rose 7.4 percent from a month earlier to 370,142 tonnes and 9.9 percent from a year ago. The demand surged 19 percent to 13,219 tonnes per day in February, from the previous month when increased stocks trimmed the demand.

（Editing by Michael Urquhart）