More positive news from China at the start of the monthly flow of economic and trade figures.
The country’s exports had their best month this year with a fall of ‘only’ 15.2% from a year ago as the economy continues to grow.
Xinhua newsagency reported that it was the smallest fall in nine months.
Exports totalled $US115.9 billion, against the $US136.4 million in the same month of 2008.
The fall was smaller than the 23.4% fall in August.
Imports fell 3.5% last month from August 2008 thanks to sharply higher imports of copper and especially iron ore, which offset lower prices for oil and related energy imports, plus iron ore and coking and thermal coal.
Imports were down 17% in August.
(It has to be pointed out the export and import figures could be a bit better than they really were because there were two extra working days last month than in September, 2008.)
The numbers figures indicated a trade surplus of $US12.6 billion, against one of around $US21 billion a year ago.
The September figure however was down from August when it was $US15.7 billion (that’s despite the rise in exports from August. The surge in imports trimmed the surplus).
Exports are being helped by China halting the rise in the Yuan in July of last year.
That is keeping down the prices of Chinese exports and allowing them to undercut competitors. For example currencies such as Indonesia’s rupiah, the Australian dollar, the Yen and South Korea’s won have all risen against the greenback.
Xinhua said China’s trade surplus stood at 135.5 billion US dollars for the first nine months of 2009, down 26% from the same period of 2008.
For the nine months to September, exports were down 21.3%.
Exports in September rose 6.3% from August, which was the major sign of improvement.
Imports were up 8.3% month-on-month, another solid sign as it shows higher demand from industry within the country.
The trade surplus fell to $12.9 billion in September, compared with $15.7 billion in August.
And another sign of the continuing strength of the stimulus boost came in car sales figures for September.
The country’s car manufacturers association reported an 84% jump in sales with 1.015 million vehicles sold.
Sales of China-made automobiles totaled 1.33 million units in September, up 77.88% over the same month of 2008.
That was up 17% month on month and was the seventh month in a row that saw car sales have topped the 1 million units a month figure.
That was slightly down from the 90% jump in August, which is normally a low month (and was in 2008).
But the $US586 billion stimulus package, has boosted sales through easier lending and sales incentives, such as tax cuts on cars with engine sizes under 1.6 litres.
General Motors said it more than doubled September sales from a year earlier to 181,148 vehicles and sold 1.29 million, in the nine months to September, beating its 2008 figure.
Volkswagen sold 1.06 million vehicles in the nine months, beating the 1.02 million it sold in the whole of 2008, while China’s biggest automaker, SAIC Motor Corp, also said sales were up 47% over the first nine months from a year ago.
In the January-September period, sales of domestically-made automobiles exceeded 9.66 million, up 34.2% year on year; production totalled 9.61 million, according to the Manufacturers Association.
September’s increase was boosted by surge in sales of passenger vehicles, which jumped 83.6% from a year earlier to 1.02 million units in September.
From January to September, sales of passenger vehicles alone reached 7.24 million units, up 41.9% from the same period in 2008: 7.16 million passenger vehicles were produced domestically in the same period.
So the industry is really selling nearly every vehicle it can make and there doesn’t seem to be a problem with an overhang of unsold vehicles, unlike in the US, Europe and other major car markets.
In January, China’s auto market overtook the US as the world’s largest.
All this is good news for Australian iron ore and coal exporters.
Car sales are expected to slow next year in comparison with 2009’s surge, but according to Beijing reports, the industry is still expecting a small rise, perhaps 10% over 2010.
That would be an extra 1.4 million-plus vehicles.
That means demand for iron ore coal and other imports won’t slacken.
Indeed iron ore imports last month hit a record 64.6 million tonnes.
And figures overnight revealed that Chinese banks are still lending.
Loans by Chinese banks totalled 516.7 billion yuan ($US75.68 billion) in September, accelerating from 410.5 billion yuan in August.
The new lending brings total loans issued in the first nine months of the year to 8.65 trillion yuan, a rise of 149% on year.
That will help keep injvestors happy.
