Industrial metals remained subdued on Monday as the market debated prospects for demand from China, the world's largest consumer of industrial metals. Copper prices steadied and settled flat after falling to one-week lows.

China's imports of refined copper in August fell by one-quarter versus the month before, as expected, a second consecutive monthly decline as rising domestic stocks and weak prices brought a halt to record buying.

China's primary aluminium imports continued a downward trend in August, weighed by more than half a million tonnes of private stocks of the metal from record imports in previous few months. Imports came to 117,213 tonnes, down from July's
131,724 tonnes and just a third of April's record inflow.

Nickel imports to China, which consumes about a fifth of the world's nickel, fell 52.5 percent on the month to 22,703 tonnes in August versus July's record inflow of 47,754 tonnes. About 130,000 tonnes of nickel, nearly a third of the country's consumption this year, was estimated at private and public warehouses.

The International Copper Study Group (ICSG) said in its latest monthly bulletin that world refined copper output in January to June was 8.886 million tonnes and consumption was 9.178 million tonnes.

Industrial metals are expected to remain under pressure after the release of Chinese imports numbers raised some demand concerns among investors. We expect some more profit booking in this complex ahead of G-20 and Fed meetings.