China’s imports of coal are not holding up as well as the iron ore with volumes falling 30 per cent over the first nine months of the year.
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The import slide reflects this year’s plunge in commodity prices and tepid domestic demand as China shifts away from low- end manufacturing and debt-fueled investment.
But the task is proving challenging.
The government has cut interest rates repeatedly since past year and pumped money into the economy through spending on public works construction. After decades of double-digit growth, the government is expecting to see growth of about 7% in 2015.
GAC spokesperson Huang Songping attributed the drops to the sluggish global economy, high costs and slumping commodity prices.
China’s September exports continued to struggle against weak global demand.
However, monthly figures were much more rosy.
Exports fell 3.7 percent from the same period past year, less than a 6.3 percent drop forecast by economists in a Reuters poll and moderating from a 5.5 percent decline in August. On the export side, a moderation in declines offers the first indication that the People’s Bank of China’s surprise devaluation of the yuan in August is giving a boost to competitiveness.
China’s trade performance has weakened again, with both import and exports falling last month.
That left a trade surplus of 376.2 billion yuan ($59.45 billion) for the month, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said on Tuesday, compared with analysts’ forecasts of $46.8 billion.
China’s Communist Party will meet later this month to plan the course of the economy over the next five years, and it has promised to address structural issues that have contributed to the instability.
Asian stock markets were in generally negative territory following the release of the figures: in Tokyo the Nikkei was down 1.1 percent, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index fell 0.45 percent.
“September’s import figure does not bode well for industrial production and fixed asset investment”, wrote ANZ economists in a research note reacting to the figures.
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At the weekend Premier Li Keqiang urged local authorities to accelerate provisions of affordable housing, raising hopes that raw materials demand will rise.
