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Green Shoots in Chinese Economy Boost Confidence for Global Recovery

2020-07-04

Beijing Review 2020年27期

Although the coronavirus-battered world economy has not yet got out of the woods, encouraging signs in the Chinese economy have raised hopes that a broad-based recovery is in the offi ng.

Industrial rebound has been gaining momentum on the ground. The automobile market, hard hit by the pandemic globally, has seen a fast recovery in post-lockdown China, with sales hitting 2.19 million units in May, up 14.5 percent from the same period last year.

Manufacturers related to the auto industry have benefited from this recovery. Florent Menegaux, CEO of Michelin Group, the French tire manufacturer, told Xinhua that Michelins three Chinese factories have all resumed production, and its business performance in China is expected to meet its June projections.

As Chinas passenger transport and logistics rebounded with the steady resumption of business activities, its oil market is also on track to recovery.

Jim Burkhard, Vice President and head of oil markets at IHS Markit, a London-based global information provider, took the brisk resumption of Chinese oil demand as a welcome signpost for the global economy.

“When you consider that oil demand in China—the first country impacted by the virus—had fallen by more than 40 percent in February—the degree to which it is snapping back offers reason for some optimism about economic and demand recovery trends in other markets such as Europe and North America,”he said in an online note.

Wood Mackenzie, the global energy consultancy group, projected that by the third quarter, Chinas gasoline demand would have surpassed the same period last year by 3 percent to 3.5 million barrels per day. Meanwhile, diesel demand could grow by 1.2 percent to 3.4 million barrels per day over the same period.

By the end of April, all major steel-using industries in China had returned to near-full production levels, and the recovery of steel demand will be more visible in the second half of 2020, driven by construction, especially infrastructure investment, the World Steel Association said.

Foreshadowing a construction boom in China, the countrys excavator producers reported robust sales in May, with 25 leading excavator makers selling 31,744 excavators, up 68 percent year on year.