China’s iron ore imports in April jumped 33 per cent year-on-year to 57m tons, according to the General Administration of Customs. The country imported a total of 188.5m tons of iron ore in the first four months, up 22.9 per cent year-on-year.

Copper and related products imports surged at an even higher rate, rising 62 per cent to 399,833 tonnes and beating the previous record set in March.

Analysts said the data did not indicate a recovery in real demand, but that purchase decisions were driven mainly by government stockpiling and arbitrage to take advantage of higher Chinese domestic prices for some goods.

Zhu Bin, head of research at Nanhua Futures, warned that it might be difficult for the country to digest these record import levels, especially of copper, and that a price correction might follow.