China's industrial production in March increased year-on-year by 7.7%. Excluding years affected by weak year-on-year coronavirus comparisons, this marks the strongest growth seen since March 2019. As we have continued to stress in Commodore Research's Weekly Executive Reports and Weekly China Reports, China's economy (particularly the industrial sector) is doing much better than market consensus is aware. Looking forward, we also remain of our view that China will be focusing on strengthening its economy even more (at the expense of re-inflating its debt bubble). We also see China as being keen to strengthen domestically in order to be better positioned to become the world’s sole superpower.
Of note in China's steel market is that the most recently released data shows that daily crude steel production at large and medium-sized mills in China averaged an impressive 2.2 million tons during April 1 - April 10. This is up by 3% from late March and is up year-on-year by 4%. China’s steel production has remained up on a year-on-year basis almost consistently since the middle of October. Prior to the middle of October, China's steel production last year had remained stuck in a year-on-year contraction throughout almost all of late February through early October.
