Bloomberg reported that about 300,000 tonnes of copper was probably added to bonded warehouses and merchant inventory in China in the fourth quarter and stockpiles likely continued to expand this year.

Barclays Capital said that even with the build in bonded and merchant copper inventory, we believe total Chinese inventory levels are lower than a year ago. Even with much slower refined demand growth, and strong domestic mine production growth, China’s need for copper imports in one form or another will continue to grow this year.

(Sourced from Bloomberg.net)