BOOMING sales of fridges, toasters and microwaves to households across the locked-down world have helped propel China’s manufacturing engine back to life, super-charging demand for key metals like steel, copper and aluminum.

This jump in COVID-19 demand, along with rebounding production of cars, trucks and other products, has revived manufacturing in the world’s second-biggest economy, sharply boosting metals consumption in the top steel, copper and aluminum market.

The manufacturing rebound marks a turnaround from the first half of the year, when the response to the pandemic was a stimulative building and infrastructure boom that propelled construction-grade steel to a rare price premium over costlier manufacturing products.

With the global shift to the needs of people hunkering down and upgrading kitchen equipment, China, accounting for 60 percent of global white goods output and 30 percent of exports, has seen shipments of small appliances surge this year.

China’s factory activity jumped the fastest in nearly a decade in October, according to a private business survey, with nearly one-third of surveyed companies expecting further improvement in 2021.

“The manufacturing sector is having a cyclical recovery, which could last one to two years,” said analyst Tang Chuanlin at CITIC Securities, noting that some major Chinese steel mills have full order books from white-goods makers until May.

Both domestic production and exports of home appliances are running ahead of year-ago levels, and have jumped since the third quarter on widespread restocking in major global markets like the United States and Europe.

Since China ended its lockdown in May, China’s output of fridges jumped by 25 percent from the same period last year and freezer output soared nearly 80 percent, according to National Bureau of Statistics data. Washing machine, TV and vehicle output also increased.

Exports have leaped since June, with shipments of refrigerators up 40.5 percent and microwaves 22.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the General Administration of Customs.

Sales of all home appliances on a cross-border business-to-business marketplace under Alibaba Group tripled in the third quarter from a year earlier, led by air purifiers, freezers and cookers, a spokeswoman said.

There has also been a surge in demand for steel-heavy containers for shipping appliances, with the order books for top container producer China International Marine Containers Group Co. full through the first quarter of 2021.

Rebounding automobile purchases have been another metal-demand driver.

Vehicle sales in China have jumped for seven straight months to October amid a broader economic recovery.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said China’s vehicle sales could return to annual growth for the first time since 2018 next year, further boosting sentiment in upstream supply chains.

Truck sales in the first 10 months of 2020 rocketed almost five-fold from a year earlier, as logistics firms scrambled to keep up with the booming e-commerce demand.(SD-Agencies)