Winter's Over in China: These Commodities Will Feel the Heat
- Steel capacity curbs are scheduled to end with heating season
- Coal stockpiles have ballooned; LNG prices look set to fall
A man walks through piles of coal at a coal depot in Shanghai, China.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
It’s the end of winter in China’s industrial heartland. While the warmer weather will come as a relief to many after a particularly brutal cold season, it’s also a turning point for some key commodity markets, with implications that reach beyond the nation’s borders. Here are four charts showing how and why.
March 15 marks the scheduled end of steel capacity curbs that were put in place to help reduce pollution during the nation’s winter heating season, when smog’s at its worst. The cuts that began in November succeeded in helping improve air quality as output slumped and also propelled steel prices and mill profitability to the highest level in more than eight years.