China’s activity data for November painted a positive picture for metals demand. However, there are signs of a slowdown in the all-important construction sector which, coupled with official efforts to curb credit growth, point to weaker activity in the first half of next year. Data released yesterday showed that overall industrial production ticked up last month, growing by 6.2% y/y, up from 6.1% in October. This was in line with the persistent strength in both the official and unofficial manufacturing PMI readings in the last couple of months. In further good news, the more metals-intensive sectors were expanding at a faster rate in year-on-year terms than the broad measure of industrial production and growth in the transport sector accelerated last month.
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