China Commodities Today: Record Iron Haul Amid Pandemic Recovery

(Bloomberg) -- China followed up its massive import pull in June with a record iron ore haul last month, although port congestion caused its purchases of crude to slow.

The booming appetite for the steelmaking material may help alleviate concerns that the bounty in materials is masking weaker underlying demand. It also won't hurt that exports jumped as global demand for Chinese factory goods appears to be rekindling.

Soybean imports also remained near record levels as crushers increased purchases from Brazil to profit from cheap supplies amid a recovery in the domestic hog herd,

Energy was the one area of disappointment, as crude oil slipped from its July record as port congestion in refining regions has kept supertankers waiting for weeks to unload. Coal dipped for a third month relative to the previous year as the government maintains import restrictions to boost domestic miners, much to the chagrin of Glencore Plc's Ivan Glasenberg.

China Events Today

(Times Beijing unless shown otherwise)

Friday, August 7

• China's foreign reserves, including gold holdings
• International Photovoltaic Power Generation and Smart Energy Conference & Exhibition, Shanghai

Today's Chart

China is leading the way in electric vehicle infrastructure, with more than half of the world's 1 million charging points, according to a recent tally by BloombergNEF. Analysts there expect one in 10 vehicles purchased in 2025 will be battery-powered and by 2040, the world will need some 12 million public charging points and almost $400 billion spent on infrastructure.

On the Wire

• China's July Crude Imports Fall From Record on Congested Ports
• China Iron Ore, Unwrought Copper Imports Climb to Record in July
• China July Soybean Imports 10.091m Tons: Customs
• China Not Accepting Australian Coal Is Hurting Prices: Glencore
• China Aluminum Prices Face Pressure on Surplus, Antaike Says
• ENN Zhoushan LNG Terminal Subsea Gas Pipeline Starts Operations
• China Gold Stocks Rise After Morgan Stanley Lifts Target Prices
• China Iron Ore Stockpiles Fall 0.6M Tons to 113.5M Tons: Mysteel
• China to Tighten Rules on Steel Capacity Replacement: Daily

The Week-Ahead

MONDAY, August 10

• Caixin PMI for July

TUESDAY, August 11:

• China Longyuan Power Group Corp. earnings

WEDNESDAY, August 12:

• OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report with data for July
• China CASDE monthly crop supply and demand report

THURSDAY, August 13:

• IEA Oil Market Report, in which it will provide OPEC production estimates for July; 10am Paris time
• Towngas China Co. earnings

FRIDAY, August 14:

• China metals output including steel, aluminum

SATURDAY, August 15:

• SteelHome steel development strategy conference in Shanghai

SUNDAY, Aug. 16

• SteelHome steel development strategy conference in Shanghai

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With assistance from Bloomberg