Preview: China iron ore, crude imports seen up in Nov on restocking

Overall foreign trade is likely to remain weak, with a Reuters poll showing export growth might have slowed to 9 percent from 11.6 percent in October, with imports also easing to 2 percent from 2.4 percent. Still, traders suggested that sentiment is steadily improving, and there are signs that industrial activity is also on the road to recovery.

Preliminary power output data for November, issued this week by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, showed a rise of 7.4 percent year-on-year, the fastest monthly increase of 2012.

The preliminary trade data will be released on Monday.

CRUDE OIL

Crude oil imports may have risen again from a strong October level, with refineries forecast to have lifted production by over 4 percent from October, according to a monthly poll by industry consultancy ICIS/C1.

The launch of several new crude facilities such as PetroChina's 100,000-bpd Hohhot unit and Daqing's 120,000-bpd plant contributed to the higher refinery runs.

China imported 5.58 million barrels a day in October as new facilities came on stream and refiners ramped up output to replenish stocks.

COPPER

Any increase in copper imports in November is likely to be a statistical anomaly brought about by the October holiday, which caused a delay to shipments, traders confirmed.

"Our bookings for November shipments were similar to October but actual arrivals were higher, with some metal due to arrive in October delayed by the holiday," said a refined copper trader at an international trading house.

China's imports of anode, refined metal, alloy and semi-finished

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