SHANGHAI — China’s refined copper imports fell year on year in January as imports of copper concentrate climbed, asserting what some analysts called "a rotation in the composition" of the country’s intake of the red metal.

Inbound shipments of refined copper totaled 243,174 tonnes last month, down 27.5 percent from 335,480 tonnes in January 2012. Meanwhile, copper concentrates stood at 761,098 tonnes, up 26.5 percent from 601,751 tonnes in the same comparison, according to customs data released Feb. 25.

"We expect imports to rotate further out of metal and into raw materials this year as domestic metal production increases strongly via higher raw material imports and more raw material supply from domestic sources," Barclays Capital Plc analyst Gayle Berry said in a report earlier this month.