SteelOrbis Shanghai
From January to April this year, China's urban fixed assets investment totaled RMB 2.2594 trillion ($294.6 billion), up 25.5 percent compared with the same period last year. The growth was just 0.2 of a percentage point higher than the first quarter total.
Broken down into the various industrial sectors, investment in coal mining and dressing increased 14.7 percent to RMB 23.1 billion ($3 billion); power supply industry investment increased 11.9 percent to RMB 171 billion ($22.3 billion); oil and gas exploration investment increased 25.6 percent to RMB 39.1 billion ($5.1 billion); investment in railway transportation increased 20.7 percent to RMB 42 billion ($5.5 billion); investment in non-metal minerals mining and processing increased 48.3 percent to RMB 54.7 billion ($7.1 billion); investment in ferrous metals mining and processing increased 4.9 percent to RMB 62.4 billion ($8.1 billion); and finally, investment in non-ferrous metals mining and processing increased 47.2 percent to RMB 31.3 billion ($4.1 billion).
At present, official economic research institutions tend to consider China's macro-economy to be "heated" but not "overheated". The fixed assets investment data for April will be a decisive factor in deciding whether or not China's central government will adopt further macro-control measures. According to the data for last month, a rising tendency was seen in growth from the previous month, and this will provide strong support for a central bank interest rate increase.
In addition, investment for the mining and processing of ferrous metals still continued at a low growth rate, indicating limited pressure from capacity releases in the future.