We don’t have steel or other production figures from China for March yet; they will be out later in the week.
But we have enough import data to be able to judge the health of the economy.
To make more and more cars needs more and more steel, copper, coal, aluminium, lead and zinc.
And to power them needs more oil, petrol and diesel.
The import figures for iron ore, oil, oil products, copper and aluminium available were at record and near record levels for March, confirming the Chinese economy is roaring along.
Iron ore imports give us a good idea and they jumped a hefty 10 million tonnes in March to return to near record levels.
It was the second monthly rise and confirms reports of some stockpiling by importers and steel makers ahead of expected higher prices from April 1.
Imports jumped to 59.01 million tonnes, up from 49.38 million in February.
The February figure was down because of the Lunar New Year and December’s figure was more than 62 million tonnes. Exports of steel products were 3.33 million tonnes in March, Chinese Customs said.
Total steel exports in first three months jumped 70% to 8.71 million tonnes.
And imports of unwrought and semi-finished copper rose to a record 374,957 tonnes in March, up 14% on the previous record of 329,311 tonnes in February.
March’s figure included copper anode, refined copper and alloy, as well as semi-finished copper products.
A detailed breakdown is expected this week and is expected to show actual imports of metal topped the 300,000 tonne level in the month.
The Customs data also showed imports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products more than doubled in March to 147,181 tonnes from 60,074 tonnes in February.
And finally, apart from iron ore, the size of China’s oil imports says it all about the current state of economic growth.
According to the figures from the Chinese Customs, oil imports were the second highest ever in March, up 29% on a year ago at 21.1 million tonnes or 4.98 million barrels a day.
Net imports were 20.8 million tonnes, second only to December’s record 20.9 million tonnes.
Imports of oil products including petrol and diesel, reached 3.22 million tonnes in March while exports totalled 2.64 million tonnes.
The nation turned a net exporter of oil products in December and January as refineries, running at high rates, produced more fuel than needed.
China exported 2.26 million tonnes of coal last month. The Customs department didn’t provide coal import numbers in the latest figures.
