This doesn't bode well for optimism that Chinese demand is actually rising on the back of improvements in housing and infrastructure construction.

There is one part of the copper story that does support the view of increased activity in the domestic market, and that's the 57.5-percent surge in imports of ores and concentrates to 2.63 million tonnes in the first two months of 2016.

This suggests rising smelting activity in China, which may be a positive sign for demand, but only if the metal is being consumed rather than warehoused, and it isn't certain that this is the case.

IRON ORE DRIVEN BY SENTIMENT

Iron ore imports also looked stronger than actual demand for its final product of steel, with China bringing in 155.8 million tonnes in the first two months, a 6.4-percent increase on the same period a year earlier.

While there is no doubt sentiment has improved in the steel sector, it's probably the case that the rise in iron ore imports was more a reflection of mills restocking, taking advantage of the low Asian spot price <.IO62-CNI=SI>.

Prices were close to record lows for January and half of February, although they have since climbed and been more volatile, with the massive 20-percent spike on March 7 being the standout example.

That surge came after a weekend of positive news from China's ruling communist party's conference, although the gains took a week to reverse, indicating that iron ore pricing is becoming more sentiment driven given the rise of futures trading on the Dalian Commodity Exchange.

While higher steel demand may well materialize in the spring and summer peak building season, a positive for China's mills is that exports of steel products have held up well in the first two months of 2016, dropping a mere 1.3 percent to 17.85 million tonnes from the same period a year ago.

Given the rising number of countries imposing tariffs, or considering them, on Chinese steel, this has to be viewed as positive for the Chinese industry, as they seem to be able to fund alternate markets for their products.