Looking at the trade detail, China imported more copper, iron ore, crude oil, coal and soybeans in November by volume than in October, and in some cases than a year earlier.
Chinese iron ore imports surged 22% in November from a year earlier, as big miners in Australia and Brazil won market share. Australian exports rose by 3% in November.
The surge in imports came as the price of iron ore fell sharply in November – so much so that the volume of imports was up sharply from October, when imports had fallen 12.3%.
November shipments rose to 82.13 million tonnes, data from the General Administration of Customs showed, also up 8.8% from october.
Imports for the first 11 months were up just 1.3% from a year ago at 857 million tonnes At the end of October, imports were down 0.3% for the first 10 months of the year.
Steel product exports though slid 1.1% to 9.61 million tonnes in November from a year ago as demand inside China continued to ease.
But total exports for the first 11 months jumped 21.7% to 101.7 million tonnes from a year ago.
China’s copper imports rebounded by nearly 10% to 460,000 tonnes last month as consumers took advantages of six year low prices.
Shipments of anode, refined copper, copper alloys and semi-finished copper products also rose by 10% from October.
China boosted aluminium exports in November to 450,000 tonnes, equal to the second highest on record.
But reflecting the long-term slowdown in demand from the world’s top industrial metals consumer, imports were down 2.8% in the first 11 months of the year, but that was better than the double digit falls earlier in the year.
China’s November crude oil imports rose 7.6% from November 2014 as buyers took advantage of falling world prices (they must have plunged into the market this week with the latest falls).
China’s Customs Administration reported that the country imported in 27.34 million tonnes, or 6.65 million barrels of oil a day (bpd) last month, , about 440,000 bpd or 7.1%.
For the first 11 months, China’s crude oil imports were up 8.7% from the same period of 2014 at 302.3 million tonnes, or 6.61 million bpd. China, which imports roughly 60% of the crude oil it processes, has been taking advantage of oil prices that have more than halved from last year’s peak to fill strategic reserves.
The customs data showed China’s oil product imports fell 21% in November versus a year ago to 1.88 million tonnes, while exports jumped 68% year-on-year to 4.1 million tonnes.
China’s imports of soybeans leapt to nearly 7.4 million tonnes last month from 5.5 million in October.
