China’s export were surprisingly buoyant in June and its trade surplus with the United States news that will keep a bitter trade dispute with Washington on the boil for a while longer.
Exports rose 11.3% in June, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs but below May’s 12.6% rise. Imports jumped 14.1%, coming in well below May’s 26% surge.
That saw a June trade surplus of $US41.6 billion, the highest level since last December and up from $US24.9 billion in May. China reported a surplus for June 2017 of $US42.7 billion, so little change from then.
China’s exports to the United States rose 13.6% in the first half of 2018 from a year earlier, while its imports from the US rose 11.8% in the same period.
In June the surplus with the U.S. was at $US28.97 billion, up from $US24.58 billion in May, according to Reuters and that was the highest ever with the US for any single month, again according to Reuters.
For January-June, it rose to $US133.76 billion, compared with about $US117.51 billion in the same period last year.
Looking at China’s key imports in June – iron ore and crude oil saw falls, as did copper.
Imports of soybeans were mixed as the country diversified away from the US ahead of the imposition of tariffs on imports from the US last week.
China’s iron ore imports dropped 11.6% in June from May customs data showed on Friday.
Arrivals fell to 83.24 million tonnes last month, according to the General Administration of Customs, down from May’s 94.14 million tonnes and from 94.7 million tonnes in June last year.
Imports for the first-half of 2018 dipped 1.6% from the year before to 530.69 million tonnes, the data showed, curbed by wide-ranging steel production restrictions in the first three months.
Iron ore stockpiles at Chinese ports totalled 156.38 million tonnes last week, not far from the record 161.98 million tonnes in early June, around 40% above the average of the past five years.
Analysts reported that month-long environmental inspections in 10 regions across China, including top steelmaking province Hebei, saw demand for iron ore weaken last month. Bans on sintering will continue into August to try and cut pollution in some northern cities.
China’s coal imports climbed by 17.9% from a year earlier to 25.47 million tonnes in June. June’s imports also rebounded from 22.33 million tonnes in May, after traders said China relaxed customs checks to let in foreign supplies.
High levels of imports led to higher inventories at port and power plants, easing worries that China’s electricity output might not be able to meet surging demand from provinces due to hot weather.
For January-June, coal imports rose to 146.19 million tonnes, up 10% from a year earlier, data showed and on line to top 300 million tonnes for the year for the first time.
China’s crude oil imports fell for a second month in a row in June to the lowest since last December, as demand from small refiners slowed.
June oil shipments came in at 34.35 million tonnes, or 8.36 million barrels per day (bpd), according to data from the General Administration of Customs.
That was down 9% from 9.2 million bpd in May and also down from 8.8 million bpd in June last year.
Imports for the first half of this year were still up 5.8% from a year earlier at 225 million tonnes, or about 9.07 million bpd.
However, total gas imports (natural and LNG) in June – including pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas – jumped 31% to 7.3 million tonnes.
Year-to-date imports hit 42.08 million tonnes, up 35.4 from the first half of 2017.
China imported 448,000 tonnes in June down from 470,000 tonnes in May.
For January June, China’s unwrought copper imports jumped 16.3% to 2.6 million tonnes from the first half of 2017.
Customs data showed on Friday that China imported 8.7 million tonnes of soybeans last month, up from 7.687 million tonnes a year ago.
However, shipments were down 10.1% from last month’s 9.68 million tonnes, the data showed.
