Remember all the hand-wringing a month ago when weak Chinese trade data for March had analysts and others suggesting that the economy was in trouble and the trade skirmishes with the Trump administration had started hurting.
Exports were weaker than exported and imports fell a long way short of forecasts. A rare trade deficit of $US4.9 billion was recorded.
Well, the April trade figures out yesterday tell a different story as exports (in $US dollar terms) jumped 12.9% year on year, according to the General Administration of Customs and up from the weak 2.7% rise in March.
Imports leapt 21.5% in April, beating forecasts for 16% growth and well above the 14.4% recorded in March.
The improvement saw a trade surplus of $US28.8 billion, above market estimates of a $US24.7 billion surplus.
China’s trade surplus with America rose to $US22.19 billion in April, from $US15.43 billion in March. According to Reuters for January-April, it rose to $US80.4 billion, compared with about $US71 billion in the same period of 2017
China’s exports to the United States rose 13.9% in the first four months of 2018 from a year earlier, compared with a 14.8% rise in January-March. Its imports from the US rose 11.6% in the same period.
Economists said the rise in April’s imports suggest China’s domestic demand remains resilient despite rising corporate borrowing costs and cooling property sector.
April was also the first month this year without any ripples from the timing of the Lunar New Year festival which fell on February 16 this year.
Looking at some key imports – 82.92 million tonnes of iron ore were imported in April, up a touch from 82.23 million tonnes in April last year, but down from 85.79 million tonnes in March.
China’s crude oil imports hit a new high in April on a daily basis at about 9.6 million barrels per day (bpd). The previous daily record was set in January at 9.57 million bpd.
April crude shipments came in at 39.46 million tonnes, China’s General Administration of Customs said. This compared with 39.17 million tonnes in March of this year and 34.4 million tonnes in April 2017.
China’s coal imports fell to 22.7 million tonnes in April as the winter heating season ended and power companies cut their shipments. That was down on the 26.1 million tonnes a year earlier and down 17% from March’s 24.28 million tonnes.
China’s copper imports jumped to 437,000 tonnes from April 2017’s 300,000 and steady on the 436,000 tonnes imported in March
Soybean imports were 6.9 million tonnes, down from 5.66 million tonnes in April of last year and 8.02 million tonnes in March.
