BEIJING: China’s finished steel exports in January plunged by 18% month on month and 37% on the year to 4.65 million mt, the lowest since March 2013, preliminary data released by the General Administration of Customs showed Thursday. Deng Haiqing, chief economist at Jiuzhou Securities, stated in an interview with Cainxin that the January figures have drastically beaten market expectations. The country’s imports surged by 30.2 percent year-on-year to 1.19 trillion yuan ($188.34 billion) in January, while exports increased by 6 percent to 1.32 trillion yuan, according to the GAC. China’s export growth accelerated in January amongst escalating trade worries with Washington while imports moved as factories accumulated prior to the Lunar new holiday. “January trade data may be affected by the always changing timing of the Chinese New Year holiday.(but) such strong import data indicates that domestic demand momentum remains healthy going into 2018”, Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics, wrote in a note. “We expect the United States administration to scale up on measures impeding imports from China”. Coal imports jumped to 27.81 million tonnes, the highest since January, 2014. If Chinas copper scrap imports fall this year, it could lead to higher concentrate imports. This brings net steel exports in January to 3.46 million mt, down 23% month on month and lower by 45% on the year. “I had only ordered 7,000 tonnes of USA corn, but had to cancel the order and turned to Ukraine”, he said. Kuijs also said that while they anticipate the commendatory outward setting to keep on supporting China’s exports, escalating U.S. Washington has also begun an investigation into whether Chinese companies are stealing the intellectual property of USA companies under the rarely used Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Imports fell on a yearly and a sequential basis. Chinese authorities have accused Trump of threatening the global trade regulation system by taking action under U.S. law instead of through the World Trade Organization (WTO). Chinas December trade data point to softening demand in China. China’s trade surplus with the USA was $21.895 billion in January, a customs spokesperson told Reuters, down from $25.55 billion in December. “We can not exclude the possibility that China may retaliate by focusing on the US’ agricultural exports, including soy exports.
ICCI leadership appreciates PM’s initiative to build a robust SME ecosystem
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