China may have sold copper stocks - Norddeutsche

HAMBURG, June 19 (Reuters) - China may have recently sold part of its strategic copper stocks, so weakening Chinese import demand for the metal, Norddeutsche Affinerie (NAFG.DE), Europe's largest copper producer, said on Thursday.

The copper market has been focusing on demand in the absence of major production disruptions and labour disputes and attention has turned to falling Chinese imports in May and the other first five months of 2008, it said.

"This was largely attributable to the higher level of the copper price outside China, which represents a buying threshold and causes buyers to wait and see," it said.

But Norddeutsche said there were reports of good domestic Chinese copper supply and Chinese copper output also rose in the first five months of 2008.

"There is no information about the sales policy of the Chinese strategic reserve bureau," it said. "It is, however, conceivable that quantities have been released from the state copper reserves."

Meanwhile, in Europe and North America, the copper processing industry is facing the annual summer break, which usually results in reduced production and lower copper demand, it said. Volatile copper prices were likely.

"Changes in the exchange rate of the US dollar to the Euro are currently causing additional uncertainty," it said.

"In this situation, quick reactions to new economic information and news from the market or the business environment must be increasingly expected."

(Reporting by Michael Hogan; editing by Christopher Johnson)