Chinese factory gate prices (PPI) in March rose at their fastest annual pace in nearly three years!

In March 2021, the China national factory price of industrial producers (PPI) increased by 1.6% month-on-month, which is the highest value since the month-on-month data (2002 to present);

In March 2021, the China national factory price of industrial producers (PPI) increased by 1.6% month-on-month, which is the highest value since the month-on-month data (2002 to present);

In March, the PPI rose 4.4% year-on-year, setting the highest level since July 2018, an increase of 2.7 points from the previous month’s 1.7% year-on-year!

Purchasing prices for industrial producers rose 5.2% year-on-year and 1.8% month-on-month.

On average from January to March, the ex-factory prices for industrial producers rose 2.1% over the same period last year, and the purchasing prices for industrial producers rose 2.8%.

Month on month:

Prices of raw materials rose by 2.0%, an increase of 0.9 percentage points

Among the 40 industrial sectors surveyed, 30 experienced price increases, 75% increase, 6 declined, and 4 remained unchanged.

The prices of oil and natural gas extraction industries rose by 9.8%, the prices of petroleum, coal and other fuel processing industries rose by 5.7%, and the prices of chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing industries rose by 5.3%, an increase of 2.3, 0.8 and 3.2 percentage points respectively.

The price of ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry rose by 4.7%, an increase of 2.4 percentage points.

The domestic non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry prices rose by 4.5%, an increase of 3.0 percentage points.

According to calculations, the five industries mentioned above affect the PPI increase by about 1.27 percentage points, accounting for 80% of the total increase.

Year-on-year:

Prices of raw materials rose by 5.8%, an increase of 3.5 percentage points

The ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry rose 21.5%, an increase of 7.4 percentage points.

The non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry rose 21.3%, an increase of 9.2 percentage points.

The manufacturing of chemical raw materials and chemical products rose by 11.4%, an increase of 7.4 percentage points.

The oil and gas extraction industry rose 23.7%.

Petroleum, coal and other fuel processing industries rose 13.9%.

The electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry rose 1.0%.

The above parameters are comes from Official English version of the China National Bureau of Statistics released:

Links: http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202104/t20210412_1816172.html

Specific to raw materials:

Aluminum:

Aluminum prices jumped to their highest in nearly three years. The price for aluminum for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange has risen to its highest since June 2018, reaching $2,350 per ton. The most-traded May aluminum contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose as much as 2.7% to 18,045 yuan ($2,760.53) a tonne, its highest since August 2011.

METALS-Shanghai aluminum near 10-year high on Chinese production curb fears

Links: https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals-idCNL1N2M705N

Cooper:

London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month copper hit a near 10-year high of $9,617 per tonne in late February. Goldman says copper is the new oil, raises price forecast to $11,000 per metric ton.

Cooper is "the new oil" and could reach $15,000 by 2025 as the world transitions to clean energy, Goldman Sachs says

Links: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/copper-price-outlook-demand-rise-goldman-sachs-sustainability-commodities-2021-4-1030304102

Lumber:

The pandemic was a perfect storm for surging lumber prices. According to Random Lengths, the price of lumber per thousand board feet jumped to $1,048 in April. That’s an all-time high, and up 193% from a year ago.

The price of lumber is up 193%-and about to spike even higher

Links: https://fortune.com/2021/04/13/lumber-prices-2021-chart-price-of-lumber-futures-short-squeeze-home-sales-cost-april-2021-latest-update/