Synopsis
A lag between the withdrawal of credit and stimulus from the economy and its impact on China’s raw material purchases may mean that markets haven’t yet peaked.
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Some sectors have seen policy push an expansion in capacity, such as Beijing’s move to grow the country’s crude oil refining and copper smelting industries.
One pillar of this year’s blistering commodities rally Chinese demand may be teetering.
Beijing aced its economic recovery from the pandemic largely via an expansion in credit and a state-aided construction boom that sucked in raw materials from across the planet. Already the world’s biggest consumer, China spent $150 billion on crude oil, iron ore and copper ore alone in the first four months of 2021. Resurgent demand and rising prices mean that’s $36 billion more than the same period last year.
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LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) - It’s round one to China in its efforts to cool the red-hot iron ore and steel sectors, but victory in future rounds largely depends on making increasingly harder choices, and hoping factors beyond its control work in Beijing’s favour.
A man walks by an iron ore blending site at Dalian Port, Liaoning province, China September 21, 2018. REUTERS/Muyu Xu/File Photo
The catalyst for the chill was reports that China’s government will strengthen what it termed the management of commodity supply and demand to curb “unreasonable” increases in prices - action that has so far seen the spot iron ore price retreat by almost 15% since its record high of $235.55 a tonne on May 12.
Western Australia’s Major Parties Welcome China’s New Consul-General
Western Australia’s (WA) Premier Mark McGowan and Opposition Leader, the National Party’s Mia Davies, have both welcomed the new Chinese Consul-General to Perth, saying the state’s relationship with China is vital to the well-being of WA.
Long Dingbin a strong proponent of Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was positioned as the head of the Chinese consulate in Western Australia’s capital, Perth, last month following a four-year term as the consul-general in Lahore, Pakistan, during where he oversaw the continued development of one of the CCP’s biggest, multi-billion dollar BRI projects the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
By Reuters Staff
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BEIJING, May 19 (Reuters) - Chinese hot rolled coils and rebar futures fell more than 4% on Wednesday as concerns over steel output cuts eased and construction activities are expected to slow in the coming rainy season.
The most-traded hot rolled coils on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, used in the manufacturing sector, dropped 4.7% to 5,706 yuan ($887.73) a tonne by 0330 GMT, the lowest since April 30.
Construction-used steel rebar, for October delivery, declined 4.4% to 5,376 yuan a tonne.
“While there is no further policy on curtailing (steel) production, trading has shifted from expectations to reality,” GF Futures wrote in a note.