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.
