Apart from the broader economic news out of China, what about the impact on Australia.
Well, mostly good, although iron ore imports again fell sharply from July’s level and steel production hit a six month low.
But copper imports rose and oil imports were higher, both pointing to the continued strength of the economy.
China’s output of steel was a touch weaker last month, despite stories of plants being taken off line for maintenance or pollution reduction reasons, as a spate of stories last week claimed.
The government said 51.64 million tonnes of crude steel were produced in August, down marginally from the 51.74 million tonnes in July.
But that was still the lowest level since February’s 50.3 million tonnes.
Iron ore imports slumped a sharp 13% to 44.6 million tonnes, from 51.3 million tonnes in July.
More importantly, for the first time this year, imports were down on a year earlier figures. The Chinese government’s statistics bureau said imports were 10% lower than in August 2009.
Australian export figures showed lower iron ore shipments (and prices) in July to China, so it’s clear there will have been another fall last month.
Chinese iron ore imports are now 18 million tonnes under the near record 62.16 million tonnes imported last December as mills built stocks ahead of the winter and New Year holidays in January-February of this year.
During the first eight months, China’s iron ore imports rose 0.1% year on year to 405 million tonnes while the average import price surged 55.1% to $US118.6 a tonne.
China’s steel exports again fell last month following the withdrawal of a tax rebate in mid July.
Government figures showed a 38% fall in exports to 2.80 million tonnes from 4.55 million tonnes in July.
Steel imports were 1.35 million tonnes in August, down 3.6% from 1.4 million tonnes in July,
Steel prices in China fell by around 17% from April to July as the government introduced measures to cool the economy and especially the overheating property sector.
China’s industrial output rose 0.5% in August from July to an annual rate of 13.9%.
The politically sensitive trade surplus narrowed from July but was up 28% from August 2009 at $US20 billion.
Iron ore imports by China, the largest buyer of the steelmaking ingredient, plunged 13% in August, the biggest decline in seven months, as mills slashed orders.
In good news for the copper market, China’s imports of the metal rose again in August.
Government figures showed that imports of unwrought copper and semi-finished copper products rose 10.7 % to 379,527 tonnes in August from 342,901 tonnes in July.
Imports were also up from 325,098 tonnes in August last year.
China imported 400,000 tonnes of scrap copper, up from 380,000 tonnes in July.
Imports of aluminum and the metal’s products rose to 72,628 tonnes from 67,462 tonnes in July.
Copper imports were up for the second month in a row after falling from April through June.
And China’s oil imports, another key indicator of the economy’s strength, rose 13% in August to 20.9 million tonnes, pushing the total for the first eight months of the year to 157.87 million tonnes, up 22.6%.
Overall, China’s exports rose 34.4%, while imports grew 35.2%.
China’s property prices rose at the slowest rate in eight months in August.
Property prices in 70 of China’s large and medium-sized cities were unchanged in August compared with July, but were up 9.3% from a year earlier. In the year to July they were up 10.3% and in the year to April, a record 12.8%.
