No sign of any impact on the Trump trade war or the slowing economy on the performance of China’s major imports in September.
China’s iron ore imports hit their highest level in four months in September, according to Chinese customs data issued on Friday, as steel mills shrugged off reports of production curbs in some cities as they prepared for their seasonal winter production boost – this time with the expectation of extra spending from government stimulation spending.
Imports of iron ore increased 4% to 93.47 million tonnes last month from 89.35 million tonnes in August, but were still sharply lower than the record 102.83 million tonnes a year ago, according to China’s General Administration of Customs.
For the first nine months this year, China bought a total of 803.34 million tonnes of iron ore, down 1.6% on the same period of 2017.
Total natural gas imports in September came amounted to 7.62 million tonnes (that’s LNG and natural gas via pipelines) down from 7.76 million tonnes in August (that’s only small shipload). Imports over the first 9 months of 2018 jumped 34% to 64.78 million tonnes.
China’s crude oil imports in September hit their highest level since May at 37.12 million tonnes, or 9.05 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 9.04 million bpd in August and the third straight monthly rise.
Total crude imports over the first nine months of the year were up 6% from the same period in 2017 to 336 million tonnes or 8.98 million bpd.
But China’s coal imports dropped sharply in August from the month before after cooler weather crimped demand from utilities and as a typhoon disrupted supply. There were a few signs of any impact of a slowing in the processing of coal imports in the month.
Total arrivals last month fell 12% from August to the lowest since May at a still high 25.14 million tonnes. Volumes were also down more than 7% from the same month last year.
That came after utilities curbed buying as weather cooled earlier than normal in northern China, prompting households and businesses to turn off their air conditioners.
Total coal imports in the first nine months of 2018 are up 12% from the same period last year to 228.96 million tonnes.
China’s unwrought copper imports rose by 24% in September from August to 521,000 tonnes, the highest since March 2016, according to Reuters. The surge followed a slide in copper prices from four and a half year highs set in early June.
That left China unwrought copper imports for the nine months to September up 16.1% from the same period in 2017 at 3.99 million tonnes.
China’s copper concentrates and ores imports came in at 1.93 million tonnes in September, the General Administration of Customs said on Friday.
Reuters said that was an all-time monthly high, beating the 1.84 million tonnes imported in July. It was also up 16.3% from August.
China’s unwrought aluminum and aluminum product exports were 507,000 tonnes last month, up 37% from 370,000 tonnes in September 2017.
That was down 0.6% from 510,000 tonnes in August.
China’s steel product exports totaled 5.95 million tonnes in September, up 1.4% from a revised figure of 5.87 million tonnes in August and up 15.8% from 5.14 million tonnes in September last year. No sign of any impact from Trump’s tariffs there.
China Sept soybean imports totaled 8.01 million tonnes according to Reuters calculation. China’s soybean imports down 2% at 70.01 million tonnes in the 9 months to September.
