As refined copper prices edged up in July, with an LME cash price averaging US$7,589/t, more merchants were willing release material onto the market, easing global supply. Nevertheless, Chinese merchants importing No. 2 copper scrap continue to be squeezed by the current price level. Having imported vast quantities of material at comparatively high prices before the end of May, merchants remain reluctant to feed this loss-making stock back into the market. As a consequence, they are faced with poor liquidity as they hold on to high inventories, which contributed to an 11% fall in imports of all copper scrap to China in June.
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