BEIJING: China’s trade performance has weakened again, with both import and exports falling last month. While the 1.1 per cent fall in exports was not as bad as the market had feared, imports declined by a worse-than-expected 17.7 per cent, indicating that domestic demand in the economy remained fragile.
Overall in US dollar terms, China’s trade surplus of $US60.3 billion marginally widened from the $US60.2 billion in August. Despite being seen as an improvement in the export side of the economy, it is still the third consecutive month of shrinking returns.
Imports have been declining for 11 months. However, there was some good news for Australian resources companies in the composition of the imports. Iron ore imports rose 16.8 per cent month on month, although over the year it was a more modest 1.7 per cent increase.
Copper imports surged 33 per cent in September, and 18 per cent year on year, as buyers took advantage of a price slump last month.
China’s crude oil imports rose by 5.1 per cent to a seasonal record high of 28 million tonnes, much of which can be put down to China’s efforts to expand its domestic refining industry. Coal continues to find it difficult to attract much demand with imports up just 1.6 per cent for the month and down 16 per cent on this time last year.
