China’s major commodity imports were again solid in October.
Oil fell sharply as deliveries again slowed from the great buying spree earlier this year when prices plunged to all-time lows; copper imports however soared, LNG imports rose and while iron ore shipments eased a touch but were still well above 100 million tonnes for yet another month.
China’s iron ore imports are heading for an all-time high of close to 1.2 billion tonnes after another near-record level in October.
China’s October trade report from the country’s Customs Administration showed iron ore imports slipped 1.7% last month from September but were up nearly 15% from a year earlier as the boom in steel demand continued.
Iron ore imports totalled 106.74 million tonnes in October, 14.9% above October 2019, but still below September’s 108.55 million tonnes, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.
For the first 10 months of 2020, iron ore imports rose 11.2% to 975.2 million tonnes, rising 11.2% from the same period a year earlier.
China’s portside stocks of iron ore reached a 6 week high at the end of October, according to the SteelHome consultancy.
China exported 4.04 million tonnes of steel products in October, up from 3.83 million tonnes in September.
Steel imports fell last month to 1.93 million tonnes from 2.89 million tonnes in September.
China’s crude oil imports slid 12.2% in October from September as tankers carrying oil from the buying frenzy slowed and independent refineries run out of import quotas.
China bought 42.56 million tonnes of oil last month. That was 10 million barrels a day (BPD), down from 11.8 million BPD in September and 10.72 million BPD in October of last year.
Over January-October, China’s oil imports rise 10.6% to 458.56 million tonnes, or 11 million BPD.
Natural gas imports, including piped and liquefied natural gas (LNG), rose 15.5% to 7.53 million tonnes in October, from a year earlier.
China will raise 2021 non-state crude oil import quotas by 20% from the 2020 level to 243 million tonnes.
China’s copper imports fell in October but still rose to a new annual high with two months to spare.
Arrivals of unwrought copper and copper products fell 14.4% from September to 618,108 tonnes last month. September’s 722,450 tonnes was the second-highest monthly level on record.
October’s total was up 43.4% from 431,000 tonnes a year earlier.
Imports in January-October reached 5.61 million tonnes, up 41.4% year-on-year and topping the previous annual record of 5.297 million tonnes in 2018 with two months still to go.
China’s imports of copper concentrate, or partially processed copper ore, totalled 1.69 million tonnes in October.
That was down 11.7% from a year earlier and down 21% from September, which was also the second-highest on record.
Meanwhile, China’s exports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products came in at 418,893.7 tonnes in October, down 1.8% from in September and down 2% from a year earlier.
China’s soybean imports jumped 41% in October from a year ago, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.
Delated Brazilian shipments and new imports from the US were behind the sharp rise.
China imported 8.69 million tonnes soybeans in October, up from 6.18 million tonnes in the same month of the previous year.
That was down from 9.8 million tonnes in September.
