So what were the news points from China’s trade data for August?
Was it the fact that China’s exports continued their strong performance last month, as the hesitant global recovery boosted external demand?
In fact, China’s exports in August rose 9.5% from a year earlier, following a 7.2% increase in July.
The data from the General Administration of Customs was in fact the strongest rise for 18 months.
But on the other side, August saw another fall in imports – down 2.1% from a year ago which was a bigger fall than the 1.4% dip in July.
Economists had expected a 7.3% rise in exports and a small, 0.2% fall in imports in the forecasts.
Now falling imports – for two months in a row – is generally seen as a negative, but China had bought a lot of commodities earlier this year, especially oil and copper when prices were lower. With price rises in the meantime, purchases have slowed.
At the same time delays at Chinese ports because of coronavirus checks and slow customs processing continues to delay imports.
As a result, China recorded another massive surplus for the month – $US58.93 billion trade surplus last month, down around 7% from the $US62.33 billion surplus in July, but still very high.
“China’s exports continue to defy expectations and to grow significantly faster than global trade, thus gaining global market share,” said Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics said in a note issued after the data drop on Monday.
Copper imports in August fell from the previous month’s all-time high. Coal imports slipped 20.8% from the month before (which also saw a big fall). Iron ore imports fell 10.9% from July but rose from a year earlier on resilient demand for steel.
China’s trade surplus with the United States widened to $US34.24 billion in August from $US32.46 billion in July. But it was up 27% from August 2019.
August shipments to the United States jumped 20% from a year earlier to US$44.8 billion, while imports of US goods rose by 1.8% to US$10.5 billion.
Exports of medical devices remained strong, growing 38.4% to US$1.04 billion in August from a year earlier.
Exports of electronic goods were up 11.8% to US$137.9 billion from a year earlier, marking a continuing trend this year.
