Trade in bulk commodities, the industrial backbone of the manufacturing sector, rallied in China last month according to data released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) on Friday.
The index that tracks the market price of bulk commodities stood a 112 for March, a slight month-on-month increase of 0.6 percent.
The sustained upward movement shows that China’s downstream consumption is gradually picking up, and market operations are maintaining a recovery trend thanks to the country’s policies to stabilize the economy.
Among all 50 bulk commodities monitored by CFLP, 23 saw price increases in March compared to the previous month.
The commodities with the highest price increases were lithium carbonate, palm oil and refined nickel, showing an increase of 15.2 percent, 8.8 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively, from the previous month.
Lithium carbonate is a key ingredient in ceramic and glass production, while nickel is essential for many electronic products.
The sub-index for non-ferrous metals — alloys that do not contain substantial amounts of iron — also saw a month-on-month increase of 3.6 percent, while the sub-index for the chemical industry inched up for the third consecutive month.
Prices for ferrous metals, including steel, fell 6.7 percent month on month in March, according to the data.
Experts said that the decrease was mainly caused by a shortage of funds, a low start-up rate of construction projects, and a slowdown in the procurement of raw materials for steel plants.
The overall rebound of China’s bulk commodity price index during the month, however, shows that the market confidence has recovered thanks to comprehensive effects brought by China’s economic policies, they said.
China’s bulk commodity prices edge up in March
