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BEIJING (Dow Jones)--China's iron ore imports in April were the standout laggard amid a picture of otherwise stable growth in commodity intake, as government policy and record spot prices for the steelmaking ingredient damped buying interest.

"The main issue is high iron ore spot prices, which definitely put the market off," said Chen Yue, steel analyst with Shanghai Cifco Futures.

Spot iron ore reached a record $160/ton in mid-April on a free-on-board basis. Prices have risen steadily for three months, tailing down only two weeks ago.

The country imported 55.33 million metric tons of iron ore in April, down 6% from March and 3% from April 2009, the General Administration of Customs said Monday. Initial rounded figures from customs had indicated declines of 6.8% and 3.5%, respectively, but the precise figures confirmed the trend and analysts expect the declines to continue.

Government measures to cool the property market, by tightening credit and imposing drastic measures to restrict multiple-home ownership in major cities, also helped to temper demand in the steel industry. Construction and development account for about half of domestic steel consumption.

Calls by steel industry lobbies to restrict ore imports don't appear to have made much difference, analysts said. Some reduction in low-grade Indian ore imports may have occurred, but that may have been the result of disruptions in ore supply from India.

"Indian iron ore exports (began) to come under pressure due to additional measures by Indian authorities to crack down on illegal mining and transportation of iron ore from the eastern Indian state of Orissa" amid ongoing government checks on trading irregularities there, Commodore Research said in a note.

Ore imports in coming months may fall further as the property market cools and spot prices decline, Chen said.

However, China's steel export sector continued to show healthy growth.

Export volumes for steel products in the first four months of the year almost doubled on year to 13.02 million tons, customs said.

Copper Imports Grow On Year; Strong Outlook

Imports of copper and copper products in April also fell slightly from the second-highest monthly volume ever, recorded in March, but grew at a respectable 9% from a year earlier to 436,345 tons, customs said.

"The volume in April was consistent with market expectations," said Fang Junfeng, copper analyst with Shanghai Cifco Futures. "It was almost certainly going to be lower than the first half's peak in March, because most of the shipments brought in on January's price-arbitrage gap had already arrived in March."

Future demand for the red metal remains strong, as recent price declines have reignited buying interest and the premium of Shanghai prices over London counterparts has started to widen again.

"The recent price correction has sparked a rise in physical buying interest from consumers," Barclays Capital said in a note late Friday. "Even the (China) domestic physical market...has returned to a premium of CNY50-250/ton, suggesting stronger incentives for imports and material flowing out of domestic warehouses."

Agricultural imports remained mostly stable to strong. Soybean imports in April grew 13% on year to 4.2 million tons, while corn exports were sharply higher at 6,611 tons, customs said.

-By Chuin-Wei Yap, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 8400 7704; chuin-wei.yap@dowjones.com.

Sourced from www.online.wsj.com