China’s foreign trade unexpectedly picked up in August, as solid global demand offset some of the pressure on the world’s second-biggest economy from a resurgence of Covid Delta cases and supply bottlenecks at major ports and across the country.
Exports in August rose at a faster-than-expected rate of 25.6% from a year earlier, from a 19.3.% rise in July, pointing to some resilience in China’s industrial sector which activity surveys showed had dipped into a mild contractionary state in the month.
Imports jumped 33.1% year-on-year in August, beating an expected 26.8% gain in the Reuters poll and compared with 28.1% growth in the previous month.
That was despite a weakening in some key commodity prices such as copper, oil and iron ore in August.
China posted a trade surplus of $US58.34 billion in August up from $US56.58 billion in July. August’s surplus was slightly weaker than the $US58.93 billion in the same month of 2020.
China’s east coast ports have suffered congestion as a terminal at the country’s second biggest container port shut down for two weeks due to a COVID-19 case.
That put further pressure on global supply chains already struggling with a shortage of containers and container ships, computer chips and volatile raw material prices.
China appears to have largely contained the Covid Delta outbreak, but it prompted measures including mass testing for millions of people as well as travel restrictions to varying degrees in August.
China’s trade surplus with the United States rose to $US37.68 billion from $US35.4 billion in July.
China’s imports from Australia in August were a record $US18.1 billion in August, up from $US15.2 billion in July and about double the level in July, 2020.
The all-time high (as measured by China) was more than $US205 billion in February of this year.
