Charts from Scotiabank team, show us China’s resource imports by commodity type up to June with the caveat that July data is pending and key. Three points emerge:

One is that it is not clear that Chinese demand for oil has been faltering in 2015 and so look elsewhere for explanations of weak oil prices. Two is that China’s resource demands are heavily differentiated across other commodities. Crude oil, nickel and copper ores are growing solidly but copper products and unwrought copper plus coal are falling sharply. This leads to the third point in that China is a patchwork of multiple economies and commodity markets unto itself and its commodity appetite cannot be treated as having uniform consequences across all markets.

Thus, frequent references to how Chinese growth concerns are impacting commodities should succumb to a greater degree of market segmentation. What also jumps out is the extent to which Australia is impacted here through weak Chinese imports of iron ore and coal.