Amid the hype brought by China's suspension of coal and iron ore cargo shipments and its apparent controlled economic slowdown, the copper unit of Xstrata, the world's fourth-largest copper miner, remained confident the world's second-largest economy will continue to import its main product nonetheless.

"We typically see a cyclical return to demand in the second half of the year in China. We still have a view that the first half was always going to be slower from a copper demand point of view," Charlie Sartain, head of Xstrata's copper unit, told before a Latin American investment conference in Sydney.

China's trading houses have suspended their cargo shipments amid the continued drop of the prices of the basic commodities in the world market.

On Sunday, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao urged for new measures to bolster the country's growth after it was observed its economy is cooling at a faster-than-expected rate.

Mr Sartain strongly believed that appetite for copper from China's as well as the rest of the world will continue to forge on, albeit minimal. In fact, he said Xstrata has a $7-billion expansion plan targeted for its mines located in Peru, Argentina, Australia and Chile that will support an increased copper production of more than 50 per cent.

"We have an active growth plan to grow our copper production by 60 per cent from projects already in our pipeline," he said in the same investment conference.

In 2011, Xstrata churned out 889,000 tonnes of copper concentrate and 651,000 tonnes of copper cathode. It has already forecast first-half copper output for this year will likely fall on declining ore grades.

Since April, prices of copper have been down 10 per cent due to the continuing economic uncertainty in Europe and China.

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China Suspends Coal, Iron Ore Cargo Shipments