By Li Xiaowei Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Copper imports by China, the world's biggest consumer, may be hampered by the global credit crunch in the next few months, Maike Futures Co. said. Volatile money-market rates have made it harder for traders to obtain letters of credit or to convert them into cash, disrupting payments and possibly hurting trade flows, said Sheng Weimin, general manager of Maike Futures, a unit of the Maike Group, the country's largest copper importer. The recovery of China's demand after the Olympics has been slower than expected and that may help push down copper prices which have already plunged 25 percent this month on the London Metal Exchange. The credit crisis has spurred concern growth could slow further, curbing raw-material demand. ``The financial turmoil has tightened bank loans that most traders rely on for finance'' and has spurred lenders to look more closely at counterparty risk, Sheng said by phone from Shanghai. ``If this continues to be an issue, we may not have as much copper shipped here as we expected on the basis of the favorable arbitrage.'' China imports of copper and copper alloys rebounded 46 percent to 132,978 metric tons in September, data from the customs office showed today. Traders had said they expected the level of imports to be sustained for the remainder of the year as a slump in London prices made imports attractive. Trading companies in China receive a letter of credit from banks for imports when they buy metal overseas, and pay back the funds after they sell their imports usually within 90 days. The Maike Group was the country's biggest importer in 2007, bringing in 250,000 tons, or 16 percent of total purchases, Shen Haihua, general manager of Shanghai Maike Dickson Investment Management Co., said in January. To contact the reporters on this story: Li Xiaowei in Shanghai at xli12@bloomberg.net

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