China’s imports of commodities were mostly weaker in August as the buying spree in copper and oil especially tailed off and high prices for iron ore saw a near 11% drop from July’s high.
Imports to China unexpectedly fell by 2.1% after the 1.4% fall in July.
It was the second straight month of fall in imports, due to weaker commodities prices.
Besides crude oil, coal, iron ore and soybeans imports fell from a month earlier.
Imports of copper were down 12.3% from the record high in the prior month, but still up by 65.5% from August 2919 (when they were very low).
Meanwhile, import volumes of crude oil rose 12.6% from a year earlier, but down from a record high earlier in the year, but still buoyed by hefty purchases made earlier this year when prices collapsed in March and April and as cargoes delayed by congestion clear customs at Chinese ports.
Iron ore is the key commodity for Australia and Australian investors and China’s iron ore imports in August fell 10.9% from a month earlier, easing from the record high in July on fewer shipments from big miners and port congestion.
China’s customs administration data for August showed 100.36 million tonnes of iron ore were imported last month.
That was down from 112.65 million tonnes in July and up 5.8% from the same period a year earlier.
“Iron ore imports in China were partly delayed last month due to coronavirus-related restrictions which resulted in congestion and delayed customers processing.
Shipments from big miners in July also dipped after the end of the financial year in Australia, while delayed shimpents from brazil arrived and were cleared.
In the first eight months of 2020, China imported 759.91 million tonnes of iron ore, rising 11% from the January-August period in 2019,
China’s oil imports totalled 47.48 million tonnes last month, down from the 51.29 million tonnes in July and the record 53 million in June.
Daily imports fell to 11.18 million barrels from the record of 12.94 million barrels in June. But there still a million barrels a day above the 10.11 million reported for August last year.
China’s imports of gas (mostly LNG) jumped to 9.36 million tonnes from 7.35 million in July and 8.34 million tonnes in August 2019.
Copper imports totalled 668,486 tonnes, down from 762,211 tonnes in July. Imports in the first 8 months of the year totalled 4.87 million tonnes.a
Coal imports fell to 20.66 million tonnes from 26.10 million tonnes in July. Imports were down sharply from the 32.95 million tonnes imported in August 2019
Imports for the first 8 months of the year totalled 221 million tonnes. Imports will remain around August’s level to meet China’s unofficial cap on coal imports of 300 million tonnes a year.
