20.07.2015 - How China affects commodity prices
Over the last 20 years, China has emerged as a major player in the commodities market. Whether it’s a global commodity super-cycle or a worldwide rout, it is often explained in terms of the ‘China factor’. Most commodity commentators devote a lot of attention to China because it is not just a large importer of many materials, it is also a prodigious producer of some. So can we quantify the China effect on different commodity markets? Consider Chinese demand first. The consumption boom across many metals in the past two decades was driven largely by China. A World Bank report shows that China consumed about half the 91 million tonnes of metals produced globally in 2012. This was up from a mere 4 per cent in 1990. In the same period, metal consumption at the OECD countries, for instance, remained unchanged...............................................Full Article: Source
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