China’s imports of key commodities, such as oil, copper and iron ore fell for a second month in June thanks to unfavourable prices, economic uncertainties and tighter credit.
But overall, demand was again healthy, with imports of all three up sharply from the first half of 2013.
In fact, oil imports were up 10%, copper imports up 26% and iron ore up 19%.
But most of the rise in copper imports came in the first quarter and shipments have been falling in the past three months as the investigation into possible fraud expands.
June saw another fall in the amount of iron ore imported into China in June, but there’s no real sign of any problems impacting demand with total imports so far this year still much higher than a year ago.
Figures released yesterday by the country’s Customs Administration showed iron ore imports dipped 3.6% in June to 74.57 million tonnes of iron ore.
But that was up 12 million tonnes, or 19% from the 62.3 million tonnes imported in June of last year.
Iron ore imports totalled 77.38 million tonnes in May, down 7.2% from April.
Total imports of iron ore in the six months to June were just over 457 million tonnes, up more than 74 million tonnes, or 19%.
China imported 23.28 million metric tonnes of crude oil in June, equivalent to 5.69 million barrels a day
June’s imports were 5.0% higher than a year earlier, and down 10.7% from May.
Refined oil product imports in June totalled 2.36 million tonnes. China exported 2.25 million tonnes of oil products in June, reversing the surplus of exports of refined product over imports which appeared in the May data.
China’s copper imports fell 7.9% month-on-month in June, dropping as Chinese banks reduced lending for metals imports following the growing investigation into an alleged metals fraud at Qingdao port.
Imports of copper anode, refined metal, alloy and semi-finished copper products totalled 350,000 tonnes in June, the lowest level since April 2013, according to the country’s Customs.
That was down from 380,000 tonnes in May when fell 15.6% from April.
In the six months to June, copper imports were up a very sold 26% to 2.52 million tonnes.
Reuters says the fall in June was in line with market expectations. "Traders said trading of copper stocks in China’s bonded zones came to a virtual halt and banks froze lending for metals imports when news of the alleged fraud came to light in early June, cutting demand for spot imports."
So the drop wasn’t demand related and linked to the still sluggish nature of the country’s economy.
And finally imports of soybeans rose 7% to 6.39 million tonnes of the oilseed in June, up from 5.97 million tonnes in May, but down 7.8% from 6.93 million tonnes a year ago. Imports could fall this month because its high summer in China and demand is usually low.
