China's copper import growth slowed sharply to hit a 17-month low in October, but iron ore and crude oil quickened pace in a sign that domestic demand for those two raw materials was stabilising after months of slowdown. Other economic data released also gave early indications that the world's second-largest economy may have ended its near two-year slowdown, with October exports, industrial production, investment and retail sales growth all quickening.
The pace of recovery will, however, be patchy for commodities. Those tied to the infrastructure sector, such as iron ore and coking coal, are set to see the quickest turnaround. Demand recovery for base metals, more closely linked to industrial use, could be milder. --- Crude oil imports rise at 3rd highest pace this year
The world's top copper consumer shipped in 321,879 tonnes in October, customs data showed on Saturday, the lowest volume in 15 months and the first annual drop since August 2011. The decline of 16 percent year on year was the steepest since May 2011 and could mark the start of several months of weak imports as domestic demand remained lukewarm, analysts said.
"Consumption for spot copper cathode has not improved in October from September," Zhang Ao, analyst at Minmetals Futures said before the data was released. Inventories at Shanghai's bonded warehouses, the country's largest, have risen 14 percent from late September to about 800,000 tonnes - indicating shipments in the previous months were not consumed.
Bulging port stocks and poor demand have caused Chinese spot copper prices to fall 5.3 percent since the start of October to 56,050 yuan ($9,000) a tonne this week. Aluminium imports, however, jumped 68 percent from year ago to 101,174 tonnes, largely due to a favourable price arbitrage. Soyabean imports from China, the world's top buyer, were up 5.8 percent from year ago at 4.03 million tonnes. But they dropped 19 percent from September partly due to lower supplies in South America, where drought hit crops early this year.
Imports of iron ore from the world's top steel consumer fell 13 percent from a month ago to a one-year low of 56.43 million tonnes in October. Separately, crude oil imports from the world's second-largest consumer in October rose 13.8 percent from a year earlier to about 5.58 million barrels per day, the third-highest this year. Implied oil demand also grew 6.5 percent in October from a year earlier, close to September's record high as demand was underpinned by fuel inventory building and new production capacity.
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