China imported 91.2 MMT of iron ore in July.  This marks a month-on-month increase of 2.1 MMT (2%) and is up year-on-year by 2.7 MMT (3%).  As we have continued to stress in our work, there remains a good chance that China’s iron ore imports will continue to climb higher during the second half of this year as iron ore port stockpiles are well below this year’s high and as Brazilian and Australian iron ore production remain poised to continue to undergo seasonal strength.

China imported 23.5 MMT of coal in July.  This marks a month-on-month increase of 4.5 MMT (24%) but is down year-on-year by 6.7 MMT (-22%).  We continue to stress there remains a very good chance that coal imports will continue to contract on a year-on-year basis this year.  China’s domestic coal production has continued to fare much better than thermal coal-derived electricity generation.

China imported 7.9 MMT of soybeans in July.  This marks a month-on-month decline of 400,000 tons (-5%) and is down year-on-year by 800,000 tons (-9%).  Going forward, the outlook for China’s soybean imports remains less clear than the outlook for coal and iron ore imports.