Viewpoint: China's imports of coal, LNG, crude oil, and iron ore are strong as the new year begins.
indiatimes.com
India
07-02-2024
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Major commodities imports into China have started the year strongly, but because of the possible impact of the approaching Lunar New Year holidays, care should be used when extrapolating the positive January result.
However, even if imports are somewhat ahead of schedule into January, the figures are still excellent, particularly when compared to other economic indicators like the manufacturing index, which suggests that the second-biggest economy in the world is having difficulty gaining traction.
Iron ore imports appear to be quite high for January; 112.57 million metric tons of the essential steel raw material are expected, according to commodity analyst Kpler.
Only the official customs data peak of 112.64 million tons in July 2020 would surpass this nearly record level.
Even if the lesser of the two experts' projections of January's iron ore imports is accurate, LSEG's estimate of 105.27 million tons would still represent an increase over December's customs total of 100.86 million tons.