USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    China
    Home / China / Africa

    Commodity import levels down

    By Du Juan | China Daily Africa | Updated: 2015-02-15 13:37

    Iron ore, coal, crude oil, refined oil all record significant price declines in global markets

    Commodity imports fell sharpy last month compared with January 2014, a direct result of the economic slowdown, experts say.

    Raw materials such as iron ore, coal, crude oil and refined oil have been hitting record low prices on the global market, but import volumes into China, the world's second-largest economy, reported a major plunge in January.

    A report from the Royal Bank of Scotland, commenting on China's import and export data, said: "With exports and imports significantly weaker than expected, the January trade data may increase the need for macroeconomic policy measures to support growth."

    The report says the recent external trade trends are more likely to lead to further domestic growth support measures than significant policy-driven exchange rate depreciation.

    Iron ore imports fell 9.4 percent year-on-year to 78.57 million metric tons compared with the previous month. The import price dropped by 45.1 percent compared with the same period last year to an average of 438.6 yuan ($70.46) per ton, according to the General Administration of Customs data released on Feb 8.

    Liu Xinwei, an iron ore analyst with Shandong-based commodities consultancy Sublime China Information Group Co Ltd, says steel prices have fallen even further than iron ore, starting in December, which further cut steel producers' profits, and led to less iron ore being imported.

    In addition, more steel furnaces carried out maintenance last month compared with previous years, he says, and China's iron ore imports in February will continue to remain low because of the ongoing maintenance.

    Meanwhile, coal imports in January plunged by 53.2 percent year-on-year to 16.78 million tons, the biggest monthly drop in 15 years, with an average price of 415.3 yuan a ton, 18.4 percent lower than the same period last year.

    Liu Dongna, a coal analyst with Sublime China, says the decline in coal imports was mainly caused by the government's policy of encouraging domestic coal use and the stricter management of imported coal.

    Domestic coal demand is weakening because the economic slowdown has resulted in weaker power consumption as domestic coal prices continued to fall, Liu says.

    Affected by the shrinking domestic manufacturing industry and the economic slowdown, China's crude imports also edged lower year-on-year by 0.6 percent last month to 27.98 million tons, says Gao Jian, a crude analyst with Sublime China.

    "The main reason for the decline in crude imports, however, might be that China is close to the end of the second phase of expanding its strategic crude storage facilities," he says.

    China has been rapidly increasing its crude imports since the global crude price first started to plunge in June last year. In December, crude imports hit a record high of 30.37 million tons.

    January crude imports were 2.39 million tons less compared with December, or a 7.87 percent fall month-on-month. Lin Jiaxin, an analyst with ICIS C1 Energy, a Shanghai-based energy information consultancy, says although crude imports fell last month, they were still at a high level.

    "China's daily crude refining output was around 1.36 million tons, 0.5 percent down compared with the figure for December, which also contributed to the fall in crude imports," she says.

    dujuan@chinadaily.com.cn

     

     

    Polar icebreaker Snow Dragon arrives in Antarctic
    Xi's vision on shared future for humanity
    Air Force units explore new airspace
    Premier Li urges information integration to serve the public
    Dialogue links global political parties
    Editor's picks
    Beijing limits signs attached to top of buildings across city
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
    亚洲中文字幕无码中文字在线| 玖玖资源站无码专区| 无码人妻AV一二区二区三区| 亚洲va中文字幕无码久久 | 少妇无码?V无码专区在线观看| 亚洲精品欧美二区三区中文字幕 | 成?∨人片在线观看无码| 久久亚洲AV无码精品色午夜麻豆 | 无码中文人妻在线一区二区三区| 人妻丝袜中文无码av影音先锋专区| 日韩精品一区二三区中文| 日本公妇在线观看中文版| 国产免费无码一区二区| 亚洲日产无码中文字幕| 中文字幕亚洲无线码a| 久久中文字幕无码专区| 中文无码成人免费视频在线观看| av无码播放一级毛片免费野外| 无码乱人伦一区二区亚洲一| 超清无码熟妇人妻AV在线电影| 中文字幕在线最新在线不卡| 中文字幕丰满伦子无码 | 欧美中文在线视频| 亚洲中文字幕无码永久在线| 亚洲成在人线在线播放无码| 无码国产成人午夜电影在线观看| 国产日韩精品中文字无码| 国产在线无码视频一区二区三区| 精品久久久无码人妻中文字幕豆芽 | 小SAO货水好多真紧H无码视频| 红桃AV一区二区三区在线无码AV | 日韩成人无码中文字幕| 中文亚洲日韩欧美| 人妻少妇AV无码一区二区| 暴力强奷在线播放无码| 亚洲精品高清无码视频| 夜夜添无码一区二区三区| 无码人妻一区二区三区在线视频| 国产在线精品无码二区| 67194成l人在线观看线路无码| 99热门精品一区二区三区无码|