China's July export surge gives hope for more sustainable recovery

Exporters benefited from a surge in demand for Chinese-made surgical gloves, masks and other medical supplies. Chinese consumer spending was subdued amid job losses and concerns about a resurgence in infections.

In U.S. dollar terms, exports rose by 7.2 percent to 237.6 billion U.S. dollars, strongly beating expectations, and imports saw a slight decline, 1.4 percent year on year to 175.3 billion U.S. dollars, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Friday.

"The jump in imports mainly came from non-mainstream suppliers as shipments from Brazil are still hurt by the pandemic", said Wu Shiping, analyst with Tianfeng Futures, adding that strong demand in China has also propped up purchases despite surging iron ore prices. That brings total for first seven months to 5 million tons, up 1.6% from year earlier.Rubber imports were 677,000 tons, with shipments in the first seven months at 3.8 million tons, up 5% from year ago.

"However, the road ahead may be bumpy as new export orders remain weak and the recovery path will be uneven across economies". They are optimistic that a ramp-up in infrastructure projects on the back of policy support will lift import growth.

The country's politically sensitive trade surplus stood at $62.3 billion. That is up 10.8% from 101.68 million tonnes in June and above the 91.2 million imported in July 2019. Imports of American goods gained 3.6% to $11.3 billion.

China's imports from the USA in July rose 3.6 per cent from a year earlier, slowing from a 11.3 per cent gain in June.