China autos very strong in March, steel around expectations

China autos seems to have shaken off its disappointing growth in the last few years, with March suggesting strong growth again.  The data from the China Passenger Car Association is a bit different to the official data, but even an undershoot of this kind of growth rate would be very strong in the context of forecasts for 2013.

For any one commodity, this is bullish for palladium, given Chinese consumption of this metal is primarily for autocatalysts in gasoline cars.

CISA have also released data for the end of March on steel production, which showed strong rates of production yet again.  The data imply monthly production of ~750mt annualised in the month, which would equate to ~5%YoY growth.  

This is around abouts where expectations are for full year production, although is lower than the annualised rates on the gangbusters rates of production in February.