by Chris Becker
Chinese authorities printed an as expected trade surplus figure for December, but surprised on the upside with export growth at nearly 10% year on year, compared to a less than half that growth last month. Imports were only down 2.4% instead of the expected -6.2%.
Chart courtesy of David Scutt at Scutt Partners (Follow David on Twitter here):
Put together that equates to a 3.4% annual growth in imports and exports according to the China Custom Bureau who still expect “pressure” on 2015 first quarter export growth.
The iron ore import numbers are quite impressive with 86.8 million tonne imported in December and 932 million tonnes over 2014 – record high!
In related news, iron ore stocks at Chinese ports have fallen below 100 million tonnes falling 0.8% to 99.85 million tons as of 9 January. Thats a fall of nearly 12% since the peak in July and shows domestic mills are running down port stocks instead of restocking themselves. Its only about 30 days of supply, but there’s plenty more coming from the Pilbara.
As are crude oil imports, which doesn’t seem to be abating in demand:
The Aussie stock market likes the news and has erased most of the mornings losses, and the Aussie dollar is cruising back over 81.70 on the print.