China’s manufacturing engine comes back to life
BOOMING sales of fridges, toasters and microwaves to households across the locked-down world have helped propel China’s mammoth manufacturing engine back to life, supercharging demand for key metals like steel, copper and aluminium.
This jump in COVID-19 demand, along with rebounding production of cars, trucks and other products, has revived manufacturing in the world's second-biggest economy, sharply boosting metals consumption in the top steel, copper and aluminium market.
The manufacturing rebound marks a turnaround from the first half of the year, when the response to the pandemic that emerged in central China was a stimulative building and infrastructure boom that propelled constructiongrade steel to a rare price premium over costlier manufacturing products.
With the global shift to the needs of people hunkering down and upgrading kitchen equipment, China, accounting for 60 per cent of global white goods output and 30 per cent of exports, has seen shipments of small appliances surge this year.