* Many see prices falling further after 5 pct drop in March * Chinese producers cut supply at home, raise exports * Premiums for imports hit one-year lows at about $90-$100 By Polly Yam HONG KONG, April 1 (Reuters) - Chinese end-users of refined copper have limited buying of spot metal to a hand to mouth basis, betting prices will decline further after a 5 percent fall last month and despite a seasonal rise in orders as well as weaker domestic supply. This means importers are also only likely to make small purchases of spot refined copper on the global market in April after cutting buying in March, pushing down premiums paid over London Metal Exchange cash copper prices to one-year lows. Weak demand from the world's top consumer and producer of refined copper helped push down LME price about 5 percent last month, the biggest loss since June. But the LME price was still above Chinese prices <0#SCF:> CU-1-CCNMM, making imports unattractive. Orders for copper power cables and copper tubes for air-conditioners have risen over the past week and the orders for cables are expected to accelerate in April as tenders from state grids rise, traders said. But firms that use refined copper to manufacture rods for cables and tubes were still buying metal on a hand to mouth basis, they added. Factories in China increased production in late March in previous years mostly as the manufacturing and building sectors placed orders after the Lunar New Year holidays and launched projects, prompting factories to boost copper inventories. This year, many sellers of copper had anticipated that would happen again, or factories would rebuild inventories due to low prices, though so far that does not seem to have been the case. A trader at a large copper smelter said the market remained nervous after the sharp price fall in March and due to fears that the Chinese economy will slow. "After the recent price fall, few users or merchants have built inventories so far. Many still anticipate lower prices," said the trader, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to talk to media. Companies preferred to buy metal to meet demand for only up to one month, another dealer at a large trading house in Shanghai said. EXPORTS RISE Lower credit available from banks had also limited the ability of smaller buyers to build inventories, traders said. Weak domestic prices had prompted refined copper producers to increase exports, with large smelters planning to ship 150,000 tonnes a month starting mid-March, producer Jiangxi Copper said. Some had also cut production for maintenance to reduce spot supply. Tongling Nonferrous Metals has closed 400,000 tonnes of capacity for maintenance, a company spokesman said, without giving a timeframe. The firm has 1.3 million tonnes of annual capacity to produce refined copper. Production of refined copper from Jinchuan Group is expected to fall after one of two oxygen supply systems at its headquarters in Gansu broke down last month. Reflecting reduced supply, spot copper CU-1-CCNMM in Shanghai traded at a premium over the front-month Shanghai Futures Exchange contract for the past two weeks. That compared with a discount for most of February and early March. In the case of imports, spot premiums in Shanghai, however, have fallen to about $90-$100 per tonne over the cash LME price, the lowest since March 2013 and down about 40 percent from late February. Copper stocks in bonded warehouses in Shanghai stand at about 700,000 tonnes currently, from 560,000-660,000 tonnes in late February, traders at two Chinese trading houses estimated. The stocks, typically estimated by traders as China does not release the data. (Editing by Ed Davies)

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