China steel PMI still weak

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China’s March steel PMI is out and is still weak, though up from February:

  • headline rose to 42.2 from 39.9;
  • output rose to 39.7 from 35.2;
  • new orders rose to 46.1 from 32.4;
  • new export orders fell to 48.6 from 52.3;
  • inventories of finished goods fell to 53.2 from 63.3, and
  • inventories of raw materials fell to 40.8 from 47.0 

I would couch that as some chewing through of the excess.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.