China’s central bank added Gold to its reserves for a seventh consecutive month in May. The People’s Bank of China added 60,000 troy ounces of Gold to its reserves last month, taking the total to 73.83 million troy ounces, ING’s commodity experts Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson note.
Copper concentrate imports up 7% YoY
“In industrial metals, preliminary trade data from China’s Customs showed imports for unwrought Copper fell 2.9% MoM and 16.2% YoY to 427.2kt. Similarly, cumulative imports were down 6.3% YoY, totalling around 2.2mt in the first five months of the year. Copper concentrate imports decreased 18% MoM to 2.4mt in May, despite smelters sustaining output levels. On a year-to-date basis, Copper concentrate imports totalled 12.4mt for the first five months, up 7% YoY.”
“In ferrous metals, monthly iron ore imports fell 3.8% YoY (-4.9% MoM) to 98.1mt. The drop reflects mills reducing purchasing activity ahead of an expected seasonal downturn in domestic steel consumption. China’s cumulative iron ore imports fell 5.3% YoY to 486.6mt over the first five months of the year.”
“On the export side, China’s unwrought aluminium and aluminium products shipments fell 5.1% YoY to 2.4mt in the first five months of the year. Meanwhile, exports of steel products jumped 8.6% YoY to 48.5mt during Jan’25-May’25.”